Jason Eckert's Website and Blog

Microsoft Keeps Trying to Name the Future

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last week, Microsoft quietly retired the phrase “Copilot+ PC” and it’s been making headlines around the tech scene. Shortly after Copilot+ PCs hit the market 2 years ago, I got my hands on one and wrote a blog post about it.

However, that blog post mainly focused on the the fact that the first Copilot+ PCs were ARM-based and lightning fast, rather than on the broader Copilot+ PC requirements. And the only interesting requirement of a Copilot+ PC was that it have a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS) to run local AI models that would perform useful on-device functions in Windows 11 like Microsoft Recall (which had a rather troubled launch). More intense tasks, of course, would still leverage cloud AI models.

The Terminal Before the Terminal

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I went to the World of Retro Computing today, and as you might expect, there was no shortage of old technology. There were Commodore PETs sharing a disk system using the MUPET (Multi-User PET) interconnect from Canadian Micro Distributors (Milton, Ontario), as well as Amiga FPGA implementations such as Minimig and AmiCube. There were vintage computers, video game consoles, a VR section, and enough fascinating hardware components, software, and books to grab your attention.

Another Special Family Vacation

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I try to create a blog post at least once a month. However, there’s a good reason why I have no August blog post this year: I’ve been on vacation during the month, spending quality time with my daughter, her partner, and my two grandsons. They live in a somewhat remote area of Australia where attractions require many, many hours of travel. So, instead of my visiting them, they travel to Canada for a long vacation, where we can do day trips to the plethora of attractions Ontario has to offer within a short drive, as well as visit family in person rather than on Zoom.

A Brief History of Computing

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Cambrian Explosion (1969-1999)

In the beginning there was UNIX.

Historians will correctly point out that there were computers before UNIX (1969). These historians are technically correct, which, as every IT professional knows, is the worst kind of correct.

Before UNIX lay the Mainframe Era, a mysterious geological period populated by refrigerator-sized computers, punched cards, magnetic tape, and system operators who possessed powers indistinguishable from magic. Little documentation survives because it was printed on green-and-white tractor-feed paper that has since fossilized.

How Nature Benefits Us

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As you may know from reading my previous blog posts or bio, I’m an avid hiker and lover of the outdoors. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking more actively about something I’ve always known about but was not able to put into perspective. It isn’t that I’ve been discovering new trails or chasing spectacular views. Yes, I occasionally do that. Instead, it’s about how I’ve been revisiting old memories because the trail brings them back.

Open Source Gatherings Still Rock in 2026

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This past Wednesday, a handful of us from the Kitchener-Waterloo Linux Users Group (KWLUG) gathered for one of our monthly social meetups. This month’s meetup was also part of LibreLocal, a Free Software Foundation initiative that promotes local free software communities.

Unlike our regular KWLUG presentation nights hosted at the University of Waterloo, these dinners are intentionally informal. No laptop. No projector. No slide deck. No scheduled talks. Just food, conversation, and whatever topics naturally emerge once a table full of Linux and open source enthusiasts settles in for the evening.

The Return of the UNIX Workstation (Now With AI)

Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I was a heavy UNIX user throughout the 1990s, back when powerful RISC UNIX workstations roamed the Earth. SGI Octanes, Sun Ultras, DEC Alphastations… all absurdly expensive and built for science, engineering, and development work. These workstations used RISC processors (because RISC was the future!) and cost a small fortune. God, they were powerful. And on many of them, I installed Linux (basically open source UNIX).

Windows Server 2025 Runs Better on ARM

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’m currently working on the next edition of my Windows Server book for Cengage, updating everything from Windows Server 2022 to 2025. As you’d expect, my primary lab machine is a high-end 14th Gen Intel Core i9 system running Windows 11, hosting multiple Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs) for roles like Active Directory, IIS, DNS, DHCP, and more.

Out of curiosity (and honestly, just for fun), I decided to spin up the same Windows Server 2025 environment in Hyper-V on my Snapdragon X Elite system running Windows 11 on ARM. Microsoft does not provide an official installation ISO image of Windows Server 2025 for ARM on their website, so I used UUP dump to generate one from Microsoft’s update servers and installed the same set of VMs with it.

The Rise of Local AI (and Why It Won’t Replace Cloud AI)

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast becoming commonplace in our daily lives. If you made it through the AI vendor hype in 2024 and 2025, you’ve probably learned at least a few things about what AI, machine learning (ML) models, and large language models (LLMs) are. And chances are, this year your organization is having you complete a plethora of different training courses in hopes you’ll become efficient at leveraging it.

Cloud AI:

When leveraging AI, you’re most likely interacting with an LLM hosted on some powerful Linux server in the cloud across the Internet. You could interact with this cloud LLM using a website (e.g., chatgpt.com, copilot.microsoft.com, or gemini.google.com), or from an app that runs on your phone or computer (e.g., Android Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, or Claude Code). Many other apps also have built-in AI features that connect to some cloud LLM for functionality (e.g., the AI features of Microsoft Office, Slack, or Grammarly).

What I Learned Running Two College Video Game Programs (2011-2018)

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Friday marked the final class of our video game development program at the college. Technically, the program disappeared from the website in 2024, but the final cohort quietly finished this past Friday so it felt like the right moment to write this.

From January 2011 to March 2015 (and to a lesser degree until July 2018), I was responsible for the faculty and operations behind our video game programs. During that time I learned a lot about education, students, game development, and motivation. This post is a reflection on that experience!

I Used Em Dashes Before AI Made Them Popular

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

For those not familiar with the different types of dashes, you’ve got the hyphen (-), which is well-known for connecting words together. Then there’s the slightly longer en dash (–), mostly used to indicate ranges, like the years I’ve maintained a blog (1998–2026). And finally, we have the em dash (—), specifically designed to be a visual separator.

Long before AI allegedly “popularized” the em dash — which is adorable, by the way — I was out here searching for a visual separator that did something commas simply could not. Because here’s the problem with commas: they accumulate. They breed. You start with one polite clause, and before you know it, your sentence reads like a monologue delivered by Christopher Walken. Or maybe William Shatner. You can practically hear the inhaling.

How Microsoft (Probably) Killed My Snapdragon Dev Kit

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Back in October 2024, I got my hands on a Snapdragon Dev Kit. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite ARM64 CPU (the fastest model!), 32GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, it ran Windows 11 for ARM lightning fast. So I made it my daily driver, and it stayed that way until very recently. I even wrote a review of it one year later back in October.

2025 in Review

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Every December I like to step back and reflect on the past year… my own personal retrospective. Just as software teams use sprints to learn and improve, I’ve found that looking back helps me stay aligned with the person I want to become. And looking back, 2025 wasn’t just memorable. It was epic.

My outdoor hiking footprint grew yet again this year. Each month, I explored new sections of the Bruce Trail and surrounding regions, from beautiful frozen lakes, to winding freshwater streams, glacial moraine forests, and even cliff faces dotted with caves. Some routes were moderately difficult while others pushed my limits with steep elevation changes (including one that ended at a mountaintop tea house!). And the fall colours? Absolutely spectacular.

Grace Blackwell Desktop Supercomputer: First Impressions

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year, NVIDIA caused quite a stir in the data-science community when they announced the DGX Spark: a desktop-sized AI supercomputer. It’s aimed at developers and data scientists who need to prototype, tune, and run AI models locally without constantly relying on expensive cloud hardware.

At the heart of the DGX Spark is the new GB10 chip, which combines NVIDIA’s 20-core Grace ARM CPU with the Blackwell GPU. Together, they deliver roughly 1 petaflop of AI compute and come paired with 128 GB of memory and 4 TB of fast local storage. The system ships with Ubuntu Linux 24.04, which immediately appealed to my inner UNIX/Linux fanatic.

Sick of cables? Switch to 5G Home Internet!

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been using 5G Home Internet for well over a year now, and honestly, I love it. For my lifestyle and day-to-day Internet habits, it has hit the sweet spot between performance, convenience, and simplicity. If you’ve ever wondered whether 5G Internet is a realistic alternative to cable or fibre for your home, I’m going to share the details and my experience in this blog post.

Windows on ARM: One Year Later

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A little over a year ago, I got my hands on a Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite CPU, and that inspired me to share my first impressions of Windows on ARM. Back then, the platform felt polished but had a few quirks. Now, after a full year of daily use, here’s how it’s held up.

A year ago, I was curious whether this emerging platform could hold up in day-to-day use, particularly in tech-heavy environments like software development and data science – for example, creating and running AI models. While the platform felt polished, there were some limitations: hardcore gaming required more than the integrated Adreno GPU, nested virtualization in Hyper-V wasn’t supported, and a few apps were unavailable for ARM, requiring emulation.

Introduction to Hugo

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

What is Hugo?

Simply put, Hugo generates websites. More specifically, it creates static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files from your content and a chosen theme. Your content is written in Markdown, with additional configuration in YAML or TOML. There are hundreds of themes available at themes.gohugo.io, most of them freely available under the MIT License.

Think of Hugo as a house builder. The theme you choose acts as a blueprint – defining layout, size, and structure – while your content fills in the details: wall colors, trim, and furnishings. Once everything’s in place, the hugo command builds your site, just like a contractor constructing your house. If you know some HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, you can even modify the blueprints yourself (I did exactly that to add a comment section to my own site, which I describe at the end of this post).

Win10 Is Nearing End-of-Life: What Should You Do Next?

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft has officially set the end-of-life (EOL) date for the Windows 10 (Win10) OS to October 14, 2025. This means that as of that date, there will be no more security updates, bug fixes, or official support for most users. While that date may seem far off (I rarely plan what I’m doing this weekend), it’s wise to start planning now, especially if you’re running Win10 on older hardware or aren’t ready (or able) to jump to Windows 11 (Win11).

Demonstrating the Power of Apple Silicon using Actuated CI

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As you may have read in my previous blog posts, my main developer workstation is an Apple Mac Studio with an Apple Silicon M1 Max CPU. But instead of running macOS on it, I run Linux – specifically Fedora Asahi Remix, which is Fedora Linux for ARM + the native Apple hardware support provided by the Asahi Linux project.

While I prefer Linux to other operating systems, the main reason I do this is for speed – running Linux natively on my Mac Studio is at least twice as fast for every task compared to running macOS natively on it. Linux is simply faster and more optimized, and it can fully harness the power of the M1 Max.

Janet Jackson's Denial of Service (DoS) Attack

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Janet Jackson might not be the first person who comes to mind when you think of a hacker. But she inadvertently created a malicious payload that performed a Denial of Service (DoS) attack on many different hard drive models manufactured in 2005 and later that rotated at a speed of 5400 rpm (rotations per minute).

How did it work?

If your computer had a 5400 rpm hard drive, all you had to do was play Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation music video and it would unleash an acoustic resonance attack that damaged the hard drive.

Happy Canada Day!

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Over 27 years of teaching, I’ve learned just as much from my students as they have from me, especially about what it means to be Canadian. One message consistently shines through their reflections: being Canadian means striving to do the right thing in the world.

We don’t put ourselves first. We put humanity first. And that’s something to be proud of. It’s also something the world admires about us. We’re kind, inclusive, and diverse… not because we have to be, but because we choose to be.

How an Ancient PowerBook Captured a Summer Vacation

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While cleaning out a corner of my basement today, I stumbled upon a relic from the early days of portable computing: a 1992 Apple PowerBook 145 laptop. Just like that, I was back in 2006, reliving a summer vacation with my daughter.

It’s strange how a piece of outdated hardware can tie itself to a moment in time. Here’s the story behind it.

It’s Still Your Call: Ethics in the Age of AI

Sat, 17 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

AI is rapidly transforming how we work, learn, and communicate. But as it evolves, we face new questions: What decisions should we let AI make? Who is responsible when it gets things wrong? And how do we ensure that the technology reflects – not replaces – our values and ideas?

In this post, we’ll explore the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI) – and ideally, leave with more questions than answers.

The Story Behind the Mac vs PC Rivalry — And Where Linux Quietly Took Over

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to computers, most people today use either a Mac or a PC. In this post, I’ll explore how this digital rivalry began, how it shaped modern computing — and how Linux quietly carved out a space of its own.

The Early Days: Roots of the Rivalry

In the 1980s, personal computers (PCs) began appearing in homes, schools, and businesses across the world. A wide range of companies entered the market, including Apple, IBM, Tandy, Commodore, Atari, Texas Instruments, and Sinclair. Most of these early machines featured basic text-based interfaces — often just a simple version of the BASIC programming language. But a few notable outliers, like the Apple Macintosh and the IBM PC, ran more sophisticated operating systems that hinted at what modern computing would eventually become.

Canada: The Unsung Hero of AI Innovation

Sun, 16 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Canada may not be the first country that comes to mind when you think of artificial intelligence (AI) and its underlying machine learning (ML) technology. However, Canadians have played – and continue to play – a pivotal role in pioneering and advancing the field.

So, who exactly helped shape the future of AI? Well, there’s one big name that stands out: Geoffrey Hinton, a British-Canadian computer scientist.

Leveraging WSL2 for Systems & Cloud Administration, Cybersecurity, and Software Development

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There’s quite a bit going on in the Windows 11 desktop pic shown at the top of this post. To see the details, you can pinch zoom the pic if you are on a phone or touchscreen device, or right-click the pic and choose to open it in a new browser tab if you are on a desktop computer.

Tips to Evolve Your Tech Career in the Age of AI

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my June blog post, AI is here to stay. It will be something we take for granted in several years as the tools we use evolve to seamlessly accommodate it. Until then, we should still avoid getting caught up in current AI hype, and no – there won’t be future job titles of AI prompt engineer once it becomes as ubiquitous as Googling.

Since AI will overhaul tech-related industries long before others, it’s important that tech professionals leverage it as much as possible over the next few years to remain competitive. In other words, AI will not replace humans, but humans who leverage AI will definitely replace those who don’t, especially in tech-related industries. Luckily, most tech professionals are well versed in adapting to change and often embrace a growth mindset that allows them to do so easily. In this blog post, I’ll outline six tips on how to embrace and leverage AI today in your tech job.

2024 in Review

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It’s important to pause and reflect every so often to stay grounded and focused. So, each December I look back on the year’s events and summarize them in a blog post. And after doing this again this year, I realize that 2024 was one of reflection, gratitude, and exploration.

I was fortunate enough to go on some epic winter hiking adventures with my dog Pepper in January before she passed away in February at the age of 13. Losing a dog is the hardest thing because we form such strong bonds, but she was an amazing dog that had an awesome life and I’m grateful for all of it. I’m reminded of a pet memorial plaque I saw many years ago that said “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” I spread her ashes in the areas she loved most: my back yard, the sports park behind my house, the public park at the end of my street, and in the stream under the bridge my daughter and I often took her to on the Mill Run trail.

Running an LLM locally using Ollama

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

If you are developing or integrating software with a Large Language Model (LLM) to add chatbot or other AI functionality, then you may have the need to host and run an LLM on your local workstation for development or testing. There are several open source LLMs available that you can freely run on your system provided that you have enough resources to do so.

LLMs are just inert objects that require special software to allow people and other software to interact with it (called running the model). Unfortunately, setting up the software components to run a model is akin to nailing Jello to a tree.

Installing a Fedora Linux ARM VM from a Raw Image

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Many professionals who work in Information Technology (IT) or software development use an ARM-based PC, such as an Apple Silicon Mac, Snapdragon Elite X Windows Copilot+ PC, or an ARM Linux workstation such as the System76 Thelio Astra. Similarly, many students learning IT or software development may also use an ARM-based PC. For all of these people, it’s commonplace to deploy Linux virtual machines (VMs) on a PC using hypervisor software to test cloud apps, host server software, or run specialized tools.

Copilot+ PC Review: Windows on ARM is finally here

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2017, I wrote a blog post predicting intense competition between Intel x86-based and ARM-based PCs. And finally, after many years of lukewarm development efforts on the part of Microsoft and Qualcomm, that competition is here with Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs running powerful ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPUs with built in graphics and AI acceleration.

As shown in the desktop screenshot at the top of this post I’ve been using a Copilot+ PC as a productivity and development workstation this month, and I must say that I’m thoroughly impressed overall. In this blog post, I’ll outline why.

Maximizing Your Hiking Experience

Sun, 13 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve always loved exploring nature on a good hike, whether it be with other people, my dog, or solo. Hiking builds both physique and mental clarity, and the “hiker’s high” is pure bliss.

There are many things I’ve learned over the years that have helped me maximize my own hiking experience. Some I learned from trial-and-error, while others I learned from fellow hikers, my own physician, or from online hiking forums. This post summarizes all of them using six tips. You can also find a list of my recommended trails here.

Practical Cybersafety for Everyone

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Internet is a dangerous place. In this post, I’ll cover five basic Cybersafety tips that anyone (including those who aren’t tech-savvy) can use to stay safe online.

1. Protect against viruses and malware

Most computer viruses are small sections of code that are embedded into files such as PowerPoint presentations and PDFs. When these files are opened in a software app (e.g., Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe Reader), the app inadvertently executes the malicious code. Alternatively, malware (short for malicious software) includes apps that often run silently in the background to perform malicious tasks, such as stealing information or encrypting files until you pay a ransom (called ransomware). As a result, malware is one of the most dangerous threats to computer users today, and many viruses merely download and execute malware from Internet sites.

Configuring GitHub Discussions to provide Blog Comments

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There are a few reasons why I’ve avoided adding a comment section to my blog these past two decades. Firstly, it can promote inappropriate and low effort responses… especially if comments can be made anonymously. As a result, my home page encourages readers to email me directly. I’ve received well over a thousand emails from readers over the years, and I’ve enjoyed replying to each one. Secondly, introducing a comment section requires the execution of dynamic content that usually stores comments within a database. I instead prefer to use a simple, static website for my personal blog that can be easily hosted anywhere I choose. This also means I don’t have to configure and maintain databases.

7 Tips for a Healthy Digital Lifestyle

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As our world becomes more and more digital, so does the need for us to periodically evaluate our technology habits. A 2023 reviews.org study found that people check their phone around 144 times a day. And according to Statista, people spend over 3 hours a day online at a PC for activities not related to work or school.

Spending too much unstructured time on any device – whether it be a phone, tablet, or PC – has been linked to both physical and mental health issues, including increased feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression.

Demystifying Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re tired of all of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) buzz recently, you’re not alone. Most of us in the tech industry are as well. In this post, I’ll outline what AI is and how it works, why you’re hearing so much AI hype nowadays, and how AI functionality will eventually be built into the software products we use.

So, what is AI?

Firstly, AI is nothing new. The term itself was coined in 1955 by John McCarthy as a way to discuss how computers could make decisions based on inputs and logic provided. However, the idea of intelligent machines (or robots) has been popular in sci-fi writing for the past century, and can be found as far back as Samuel Butler’s 1863 article Darwin among the Machines.

How I Keep my Linux Textbook Updated for New Versions

Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Back when I wrote the first edition of my Linux textbook in 2002, I spent a massive amount of time planning every detail to ensure it had a strong prerequisite concept flow for those new to Linux usage and administration. I added more content on network services and security in the second edition, and dramatically more in the third edition. The fourth edition introduced Systemd, ZFS, and additional security technologies. The fifth edition added many new server, storage, container, and cloud topics, as well as Git and an appendix that allowed readers to apply their Linux skills to macOS. The sixth edition that was published last year expanded these same topics, as well as added the Z shell, Kubernetes, and another appendix that allowed readers to apply their Linux skills to FreeBSD UNIX. Content-wise, the sixth edition is arguably the most comprehensive Linux textbook on the market.

The Rise of RISC-V and Open Hardware

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

During the rise of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the software world underwent a paradigm shift towards “open source” software development. Open source software is any software that is released under a license that gives other software developers access to read and modify the original source code that was used to create the software. In other words, if you publish software under an open source license, you are offering the source code you created to others who can modify it to fix bugs and security loopholes, as well as make feature improvements. Thus, compared to closed source software, open source software evolves much quicker and is more stable and secure.

Tips for Maintaining a Growth Mindset

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2020, I wrote a blog post detailing 6 tips for working in the tech industry. And while these tips are sage for any tech worker, there is a 7th tip that applies to life in general: Adopt a growth mindset.

What is a growth mindset?

A growth mindset is a way of viewing challenges and setbacks. People who adopt a growth mindset believe that challenges can always be overcome with time and effort, and that setbacks and failures are valuable learning opportunities that lead to self-improvement and future success. In other words, a growth mindset is a positive, open, and healthy outlook on both learning and life.

Remembering Pepper

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On Monday I had to say Goodbye to an old friend. She was an amazing dog that will live in my heart forever. This post is a tribute to her and the memories.

When my daughter was growing up, she wanted to pet every dog we came across. She regularly asked if we could get a dog.

Being a single parent, I wasn’t too keen on getting a pet because of the added work and responsibility I knew all too well growing up with cats and dogs, but I made a promise to her that when she was old enough to take care of a pet, she could get a dog.

40 years of Macintosh

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The first Apple Macintosh computer was released 40 years ago (January 24, 1984) following an epic 1984 Super Bowl commercial two days earlier.

As the first mass-market all-in-one computer with a graphical desktop and mouse navigation, the Macintosh (and the Macintosh brand in general) was positioned to be the computer for everyone.

40 years later, the “Mac” is a household name and Apple is the world’s richest company by market cap. But the Mac isn’t just a computer, it’s essentially Apple’s whole line of business. iPhones and iPads run a version of the same macOS UNIX operating system you’ll find on your MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Studio, or Mac Pro. Ditto for the Apple Watch and Visio Pro, and likely every future product that Apple releases.

Extending the life of an Intel-based Mac using Windows 11

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2020, Apple introduced the first Macs that used Apple Silicon processors instead of Intel ones, and this transition from Intel to Apple Silicon was completed earlier this year across Apple’s entire product line. While Apple promised they’d continue supporting macOS on Intel-based Macs for the near future, those of us who remember Apple’s previous transitions from M68k-to-PowerPC and PowerPC-to-Intel know full well that this support is going to end sooner than later. Even the last two versions of macOS have far fewer features when run on Intel Macs.

2023 in Review

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For me, 2023 turned out to be a year of learning, growth, adventure, and gratitude. And since there’s plenty for me to talk about, I’ve divided my review into two sections: one that summarizes my professional pursuits, and one that summarizes everything else.

The professional stuff:

On the college front, the new technology programs I’ve been pushing since 2020 finally got to market! My favourite one is Mobile Web Developer, as it’s a radical departure from what we did previously. The whole program is taught exclusively on macOS, has two interlaced capstones, and is carefully crafted to allow students to build solid developer skills using modern industry tooling and processes with zero tests/quizzes (students instead perform weekly assignments). These weekly assignments allow instructors to assess and guide skills development for individual students throughout each course, as well as echo the sprint cadence used within industry that students must become accustomed to. We also have a new IT Professional (Infrastructure, Cloud & Cybersecurity) program that restructures and augments many of the topics in our previous IT Professional program to allow for expansion into the areas of cloud and cybersecurity (both of which are key industry focal points today).

Setting up a Raspberry Pi Home Server

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Raspberry Pi has been the most popular single board computer (SBC) among computer hobbyists for the past decade. It can be used to perform a wide variety of very different tasks, such as running graphical apps, streaming media, performing home automation, and monitoring humidity levels in a greenhouse. This is largely made possible by the Raspberry Pi’s many interfaces (including GPIO, USB, HDMI, and wired/wireless Ethernet), as well as its ability to run the highly-customizable Linux operating system.

Essential keyboard shortcuts (Windows/macOS/Linux/UNIX)

Sun, 12 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Following are some shortcuts that I believe all desktop users should be familiar with. It is not a complete list by any means, and does not include virtual desktop or app pinning shortcuts as I felt those were beyond the scope of common desktop shortcuts. If you feel I omitted a common shortcut, email me (jason.eckert@trios.com) and I’ll add it to the list!

1. Windows shortcuts

The Windows (⊞) key on your keyboard has the Windows logo printed on it. Modern keyboards use the newer Windows logo with four equally-sized squares, while older keyboards use a Windows logo with four slanted or curved squares.

Linux Distro Hopping is a Bad Idea

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

What is distro hopping?

In the Linux community, it’s not uncommon to install and use several different Linux distributions (or distros) over time - a process called distro hopping. After all, there are hundreds of different distros available - and because each one is often geared to provide the optimal experience for a specific user or use-case (e.g., gaming), it’s become commonplace to assume that there must be a specific Linux distro out there that will suit your individual needs. Consequently, most Linux users believe that you should choose a Linux distro using the same process as choosing a wardrobe or eyewear frames. And that means trying on many different Linux distros to see how they look ;-)

Bob Gunderson Tribute

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The top three software developers that ever worked for triOS College are shown here from left to right: Orion, Bob, and me. Unfortunately, this week we lost Bob to a courageous and difficult battle with cancer.

I’ve known and worked with Bob Gunderson since the beginning of triOS College 25 years ago, when it was called triOS Career Academy and triOS College of Information Technology. He was a talented software developer who taught our early web and software development courses before becoming the Faculty Head, and eventually the senior developer of our own internal software system (called XCAS).

An Extra Special Family Vacation

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

While most of my blog posts are technical in nature, I occasionally post a personal one - and this one certainly falls into that category.

I’ve been on vacation these past several weeks to spend some quality time with my daughter, her partner, and my grandson from Australia. It was the first time I’ve been able to hug my daughter in four years, and the first time I’ve been able to see my grandson and his father outside of Zoom.

Running a Mainstream Linux Distro Natively on Apple Silicon: Fedora Asahi Remix First Impressions

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a year and a half since the Asahi Linux project allowed us to run Arch Linux natively on our Apple Silicon computers. And while my overall experience has been excellent, the Asahi Linux project is switching their flagship Linux distribution (distro) from Arch to Fedora.

Why the switch from Arch to Fedora? You could argue that Fedora is a much more popular mainstream distribution compared to Arch, or that Linus Torvalds himself uses Fedora already on his Apple Silicon-based Macbook using the Asahi boot components and drivers. But the main reason is that there have been many issues surrounding the maintenance of ARM packages for Arch Linux, and that the Fedora team is both capable and willing to provide provide the support needed to provide a truly polished Linux experience on modern Macs (the main goal of the Asahi Linux project). By moving to Fedora, the Asahi team can focus on reverse engineering Apple hardware while the Fedora team can focus on maintaining the distribution itself on the Apple Silicon platform. This combination of Fedora with the Asahi boot components and drivers for Apple Silicon is called Fedora Asahi Remix.

How to Leverage Music for Maximum Tech Productivity

Sun, 23 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Most of us who work in technology fields such as software development, systems administration, and cybersecurity often listen to music while we work at our computer. After all, music stimulates many parts of our brains, including the limbic system responsible for alertness, emotion, and memory. Psychologists have also shown that music also reduces anxiety and blood pressure, as well as improves mood.

However, to make the most out of it, you must carefully plan your music strategy. Unfortunately, all of the blogs and YouTube videos I’ve seen that cover this process are terrible - they usually focus on music theory concepts the average person will not know or care about, and offer little practical advice. So, in this post I’ll get straight to the point about how you can get the most out of your music as a tech professional.

So, you’re curious about software development?

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The impact of the digital revolution this past decade has made software development a mainstream news topic. After all, every software app you’ve used on your phone, tablet, and computer was made by software developers, as was every website, online service, and Internet-connected gadget.

Because of my software development experience and role at the college, I get plenty of questions from friends, family, neighbors, strangers, and potential students about it. Most want to know what it’s like to work as a software developer, or what it takes to become a software developer today. If you’ve also had these questions, then this post is for you.

My first textbook is now in its sixth edition

Tue, 23 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

While I’ve written many textbooks on different topics over the past two decades, my favourite subject area by far is Linux. After all, Linux has evolved to be one of the most foundational topics in tech education. Information Technology (IT) fields such as server/network administration, cloud administration, cybersecurity, and software development now require a solid grasp of the Linux operating system.

I've now been teaching tech for 25 years!

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This month marks the 25th anniversary of my teaching Information Technology (IT) courses for triOS College in Ontario, Canada.

Back in 1998 I was well on my way to becoming an academic bum that kept on taking university courses forever. But I had a wife and child and needed to think more responsibly. So, as my spring university semester was ending, I applied for an instructor job that my grandmother saw in a newspaper ad and thought I’d be perfect for. After an interview and demo teach, I got the job and started the following Monday… April 20, 1998.

Linux is making Apple Great Again

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

MAGA pun aside, Linux is doing more for Apple hardware than macOS right now… at least in the eyes of some old UNIX nerds like me.

At the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) earlier this month, the closing keynote was given by Ken Thompson (co-creator of the UNIX operating system and the Go programming language). During the Q&A session following that keynote, Ken was asked “What’s your operating system of choice, today?” While you can watch it here, his response was:

The Ultimate Linux ARM64 Workstation

Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It all started this month last year

In March 2022, the alpha release for Asahi was made available and I immediately installed it on a Mac Mini with an 8-core Apple Silicon (ARM64) M1 processor. Asahi is a Linux distribution that can run natively on Apple Silicon-based Macs due to some slick reverse engineering provided by members of the open source community. Moreover, running Asahi is perfectly legal because Apple formally allows booting non-macOS operating systems on their Apple Silicon platform.

Fun Facts About Linux

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Below are 26 questions that detail fun and obscure facts about the Linux operating system. Regardless of how much you’ve used Linux in the past, there’s likely a few or more that you probably didn’t know. Try answering each one from memory (or give it a good guess!) and then expand the Show me the answer! section to see if you are correct. PERFECT SCORES WIN A PRIZE!!! If you knew the correct answer to all 26 of these questions off the top of your head, send me an email and I’ll send you a link to download a free (yes FREE!) copy of Fedora Linux ;-)

The Time I Yoga-Balled an Apple Store Employee

Sat, 07 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Back in the late 2000s, my teenage daughter and I went to a local mall one weekend to do some shopping. As usual, I insisted we drop into the Apple store before leaving.

The store itself was quite busy. There were people playing with nearly every item on display at the tables near the front of the store, and even more people hovering around those people to catch a glimpse of what they were doing.

2022 in Review

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

2022 was definitely an interesting year. COVID was given far less attention and we started living with it much like we live with the flu virus. Mask requirements were dropped, and many social events have resumed. Crazy COVID conspiracy theories and uproar are distant memories (at least for me).

I’m still teaching IT classes remotely, which has resulted in better educational outcomes compared to the physical classroom. Working with operating systems and IT software within virtual machines on home PCs promotes tinkering and resourcefulness while allowing students to continue and expand upon class work at any time. Being able to revisit class videos afterwards is a huge bonus that everyone enjoys, as is the lack of commute-related stress. Since our IT programs include several CompTIA certifications, I decided to write a bunch of them this year, including the biggest one: CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+). I’m also planning on writing 5 more of them in the first half of 2023 because I have the exam vouchers from the CompTIA Instructor Network program.

Reboot your mind once a day

Sat, 26 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Any IT sysadmin will tell you that if you don’t schedule time for computer maintenance, your systems will schedule it for you. The same is true for the human mind. After all, humans are the most powerful computer out there (and the only one that can be mass produced by unskilled labour ;-)

When starting out in a tech field, we are intrinsically motivated to spend long hours trying to make a name for ourselves - after all, there’s no better feeling than mastering a new skill to level up in a knowledge industry. I remember this “sleep is for the weak” mindset fondly, but we do a lot of damage to our bodies during this period of our lives and the stress eventually catches up. Luckily, there is an easy solution. And no, it’s not drugs. It’s 20 minutes of mindfulness meditation every morning.

RISCy business: The long and convoluted rise of today's dominant computing platform

Sun, 23 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

RISC vs CISC

Traditionally, most computing platforms were built with the burden of software in mind. To ensure that a software program could be written easily and with fewer instructions, additional circuitry was added to the central processing unit (CPU) to compensate. This was referred to as complex instruction set computing (CISC). CISC architecture is still common today thanks to the x86 architecture used by Intel and AMD CPUs in most workstations and servers. Unfortunately, the added circuitry within CISC CPUs equated to added cost and complexity - both of which made it more expensive to evolve.

How modern open source projects work

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

By definition, “open source” has little to do with how software is actually created.

Instead, open source refers to how the source code for a software development project is distributed and consumed by software developers working on other projects. It is essentially a blanket term that refers to any software that makes its source code available to others. To be open source, the software project must be released under an open source license, of which there are two main categories: Copyleft and Permissive.

How Linux Certification Has Evolved Over The Years

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Because organizations continually adopt new technologies, the need for skilled IT professionals to support those technologies is always increasing. Technology certification has been the most common skills benchmark used for hiring and promotion in the IT industry since the early 1990s, with Linux certification being one of the most sought-after. After all, knowing how to use, configure and administer the Linux operating system is prerequisite for a wide variety of different IT job roles, including server administrators, cloud administrators, devops engineers, site reliability engineers, cybersecurity analysts, penetration testers, and software developers.

Dual-booting Asahi Linux on your Apple Silicon Mac

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

What is Asahi Linux?

Asahi (https://asahilinux.org/) is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux ARM that you can install natively on Apple Silicon Macs with an M1- or M2-based CPU. I’ve been using it daily as a software development workstation for over 3 months now on an M1 Mac Mini (16GB RAM, 500GB SSD), and it’s unbelievably fast. It is 100% funded by Patreon and developed full-time by Hector Martin with many other contributors. You can watch this interview to learn more about the project, or this video to learn how the Apple Silicon platform is reverse-engineered.

The Power of Swag in the Tech Industry

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

What is swag?

Simply put, swag is any branded freebie that you get from a vendor, and it’s been used for marketing at tech industry events and showcases since the 1970s. Some common types of swag include stickers, mugs, water bottles, pins, luggage tags, plushies, squishies, t-shirts, socks, hats, tote bags, throw blankets, lanyards, sunglasses, lip balm, custom Lego sets, branded card/board games, journals/notebooks, sticky notes, phone stands, USB power banks, cables/accessories, USB thumb drives, and Bluetooth thingy’s. Branded items you receive from your own organization could also be called swag, but since they are often more expensive and targeted towards employee retention, I’ll omit them entirely in this blog post.

macOS for Linux admins (2022 refresh)

Sun, 22 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my CompTIA blog post All About Linux and Linux+ ( https://www.comptia.org/blog/all-about-linux-and-linux ), Linux is essentially an open-source UNIX operating system. And since nearly all of the concepts, commands and files are identical between UNIX and Linux, anyone who works with Linux could easily administer a UNIX system.

The macOS operating system that runs on Apple computers is a flavor of UNIX. Thus, most of the concepts that you use when administering a Linux system are also applicable to macOS. It’s not uncommon to find Apple laptops running macOS within organizations today, or even Apple desktops within certain departments, such as Marketing, where they are often used for graphics and desktop publishing. Consequently, when applying for IT administration and support jobs that require a macOS skillset, Linux is a big benefit!

Ontario's Computer Part 2: The LEXICON Server

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As I described in my previous blog post, the Burroughs ICON was a very cool UNIX-like computer developed by the Ontario governement for use within schools during the 1980s and early 1990s.

But because ICON computers were all diskless workstations, they were completely useless without a network and LEXICON file server. After all, the QNX operating system and programs that ran memory-resident on each ICON had to first be downloaded from the LEXICON across an ARCNET network. Moreover, when users logged into QNX on their ICON, they were actually logging in as a user account on the LEXICON and accessing the files within their home directory on the LEXICON’s hard drive. When users printed documents, they printed to the shared printer connected to the LEXICON.

Ontario's Computer: The Burroughs ICON

Sun, 03 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Nicknamed the bionic beaver, the ICON was a Canadian computer funded by the Ontario government and used in schools province wide. It was designed by CEMCorp (Canadian Educational Microprocessor Corporation) and manufactured by Burroughs (later renamed to Unisys). Moreover, it ran the QNX UNIX-like operating system, which was also developed in Canada by two University of Waterloo students.

If you took a computer programming course in high school during the 1980s or early 1990s, you likely remember learning C, BASIC or Pascal on the ICON, as well as many UNIX commands that would pay off later in college or university. If you didn’t, you probably remember the ICON as a cool looking steel monstrosity that had an indestructible keyboard and trackball (that everyone tried to spin as fast as they could).

Configuring the i3 Window Manager

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Why use the i3 window manager

If you’re a Linux user, you’re probably using a desktop environment that looks like Windows (e.g. KDE Plasma) or macOS (e.g. GNOME). But these desktop environments use a great deal of resources and are cumbersome when it comes to flexibility and navigation between applications and code. To solve these problems, most software developers and Linux/UNIX administrators install and use a tiling window manager.

While there are many different tiling window managers available, i3 is the most common one. It is easy to configure, and has great documentation available at https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html

Brewing the Best Coffee

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

It’s no secret that coffee is one of the most important factors in the development of any technology, including software. In this post, I’ll outline how you can create the perfect cup of coffee to enhance your love of the bean as well as boost software development productivity.

Over the years, I’ve needlessly spent thousands of dollars on expensive coffee-making equipment, including fancy coffee grinders and expresso machines.

The Power of RISC architecture

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This part of the 1995 Hackers movie shown above is right on par for the time. After all, by the mid 1990s Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processors were seen as the future of computing by most in the tech industry.

By using a simplified instruction set, computers with RISC processors at the time could perform tasks in a quarter of the time compared to computers that had a traditional Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) processor. RISC processors also required less circuitry, which allowed manufacturers to easily add more functionality, such as crypto accelerators, memory management controllers and specialized floating point arithmetic units.

SPARCbook teardown

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2019, I picked up a rare SPARC-based laptop from the 1990s running Solaris UNIX (marketed as the ultimate UNIX portable on the Tadpole website in 1997). You can read my blog post on it here: SPARCbook 3000ST: The coolest 90s laptop. It occasionally shows up on Hacker News, and I get plenty of comments whenever I post it on Reddit.

Understanding the Cult of Mac

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Exactly 3 years ago, I wrote a non-fiction work of satire called Escaping the Cult of Mac: A Guide from a Cult Survivor to win a bet with some members of the local tech community in Kitchener-Waterloo. It was incredibly fun, and it got plenty of laughs. A friend recently requested I do up a shorter, safe-for-work version that could easily be shared. And this blog post is essentially that!

2021 in Review

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

While 2020 introduced a slew of changes to everyone’s personal and professional lives, these changes were considerably less pronounced for those of us working in tech fields. After all, most software engineering and server/cloud configuration was already performed remotely before the pandemic using long-standing processes/tools. Adapting to online tech teaching in the college was a welcome challenge, and also more relevant for the industry.

As 2020 was ending, we all knew that 2021 would bring vaccine rollouts but not a complete return to normalcy. I was very interested to see how the pandemic shakeup would transform the workplace and our use of technology in 2021, but also knew that 2021 would be more like season 2 of 2020. Consequently, I decided to make the most out of the more delightful aspects of 2020, including work-from-home, online tech conferences, and local outdoor activities.

Kubernetes Quickstart

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past two decades, we’ve shifted from running servers bare metal to running them almost exclusively within virtual machines (VMs). More recently we’ve seen another shift to running servers within containers. Like VMs, containers are servers that contain a unique filesystem, IP stack and software. But unlike VMs, containers do not contain a full operating system or operating system kernel. Instead they rely on an underlying operating system that runs the container using a container runtime, such as Docker. Consequently, containers are much smaller than VMs and ideal for running software within cloud environments where resource utilization must be kept to a minimum to control costs.

Installing a fast Linux server on an M1-based Mac

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

One of the biggest worries that IT users have regarding Apple’s new ARM-based M1 platform is the ability to run virtual machines (VMs) of other operating systems using hypervisor software. And while it’s possible to run virtual machines of both Windows and Linux operating systems made for the Intel platform on the M1, the performance cost of translating Intel instructions to ARM is high (even with the optimizations Apple has within their M1 CPU). Luckily, the most common VM that an IT systems administrator or developer will install is Linux, and ARM versions of Linux have been mainstream for well over a decade now.

ARM on the desktop is here to stay

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Back in the 1990s, Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) architecture was widely seen as the future. UNIX workstations from Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems boasted powerful RISC CPUs at the time, but were prohibitively expensive and died out in the early 2000s as a result. Only the Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) architecture used in low-power devices (e.g. PDAs) survived past the early 2000s, and only because of the rise of mobile devices that relied on battery power.

An overview of cloud buzz words

Sun, 03 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

As this Dilbert comic eloquently illustrates, there’s no shortage of cloud buzz words thrown around today. But as strange and complex as they may sound (even to seasoned developers and system administrators), they are not difficult to understand. In this blog post, I’ll walk through the different components and features of the cloud, explaining the associated buzz words along the way.

What is the cloud?

Back in the early 1990s, when the US government sold off parts of their ARPAnet and NSFnet to private companies (later called Internet Service Providers, or ISPs) to create the public Internet, there wasn’t anything exciting about the Internet at all. After all, the Internet was just a physical computer network that allowed your computer to talk to other computers, usually through a telephone network via a modem.

Work-from-home is the new BlackBerry

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I vividly remember the first time I was issued a BlackBerry smartphone back in the 2000s for work. I’d read emails while in line at the Pita shop during lunch hour, formulating a plan and response before I returned to my desk to reply. For emails that required a quick response, I’d hammer out a response on the BlackBerry keyboard while in line. And having access to my Outlook calendar on the BlackBerry meant that I could view, schedule and prioritize my tasks anywhere. There was never any doubt in my mind that it made me far more productive.

Copyleft is dying

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Software licensing is the catalyst that drives the modern tech industry. This is because reusable software code released under an open source license (permitting its reuse) is the norm for nearly all software development today. After all, if we couldn’t reuse existing code in new software projects, it would take far longer to bring technologies to market, and the overall software industry wouldn’t be able to evolve as quickly. Moreover, there are two major types of open source licenses.

It's a great time to be a developer

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been a developer for over 3 decades. I remember prompt statements in dBASE III, M68k Assembly and those awful Borland tools. Documentation was provided in large printed binders and often left a lot to the imagination.

Things got better in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but it wasn’t until the late 2000s when things really started to heat up. Sun Microsystem’s early 1990s slogan “The network is the computer” became a reality with the rise of cloud computing, object storage and slick frontend/backend stacks.

UNIX/Linux is now a core skill for anyone working in tech

Sun, 27 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

If you had asked me in the 1990s whether most people in the tech world would be using a UNIX or Linux shell to manage their servers, I would have chuckled and said “No.” But two decades later we find ourselves in a world where 96% of the cloud is comprised of Linux servers running Web apps made with open source frameworks, and the majority of software development is done on UNIX (macOS) or Linux workstations. Nearly all network hardware, security appliances, smart appliances, cars, wearables and IoT devices also run UNIX or Linux, as do our smartphones and tablets. Want to secure your systems or network, or test your security using ethical hacking? You’ll need UNIX or Linux to do that as well.

Cybersecurity in a Nutshell

Fri, 07 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Simply put, Cybersecurity is an umbrella term that encompasses all aspects of computer, network and data security. While Cybersecurity-specific job roles are commonplace in larger organizations, smaller organizations often require that existing IT roles perform Cybersecurity-specific tasks. And since Cybersecurity is only going to grow in importance over time, anyone working in IT should have a solid knowledge of it.

So what does Cybersecurity involve?

You can divide cybersecurity into four main areas today:

The future looks a lot like mainframe computing

Sun, 11 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Mainframe computers, like the IBM one shown above, were the first digital computers that started appearing in big companies during the 1950s. They were room-sized behemoths of circuitry and steel primarily used to generate balance sheets and income statements. And while IBM still sells a small number of mainframe computers today, they only enjoyed mainstream popularity until the late 1980s.

While early mainframes were only accessed by the people who managed it, most mainframes of the 1970s and 1980s ran programs that were accessed by remote users via a dumb terminal. Dumb terminals were not standalone computers; they had a display and keyboard, but merely allowed you to interact with a central mainframe computer across a network connection.

Relating Silicon Valley to the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Silicon Valley is an HBO comedy series that aired from 2014-2019. It follows a group of software engineers as they journey from creating their own apps in a home-based tech incubator in California’s Silicon Valley to creating a new decentralized Internet in their own venture capital-funded tech company.

From the beginning, its creators (Mike Judge and Alec Berg) aimed to make the series an entertaining and accurate depiction of Silicon Valley tech culture, icons and events. And according to those with an intimate knowledge of Silicon Valley, they succeeded tremendously:

Mastering the Zen of TrackPoint

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Lenovo (formerly IBM) ThinkPad laptops are widely known for three things:

An amazing keyboard (often touted as the best for professional work)
Rugged build quality (it’s hard to kill a Thinkpad: https://youtu.be/OMilj81s9SI)
The TrackPoint, which has been standard on ThinkPads since the first model in 1992

What is a TrackPoint?

Simply put, it is an alternative to using a mouse or trackpad on laptops. To ensure that your index fingers can easily reach it, it’s situated in the middle of the keyboard between the G, H and B keys.

The computer that saved Apple

Sun, 24 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The very first iMac model (shown above) was released in 1998, came in one colour called Bondi Blue, and had a semi-translucent case that allowed you to see the components inside. It had a 233MHz PowerPC G3 CPU, 32MB of RAM, CD-ROM drive, and shipped with MacOS 8.1 (soon upgraded to MacOS 9 - the last version before Apple moved to Mac OS X).

While passing by a convenience store in my home town of Hespeler, I muttered in distaste when I noticed that someone had dumped a lot of furniture and various other household items next to the already-full dumpster at the back. But just as I was about to look away, I noticed something familiar. Peeking out of the top of a Rubbermaid tub was what looked like the rear of an old iMac. When I walked over to it, I noticed that it was a Bondi Blue iMac in mint condition, with the original keyboard and mouse. So I took it home, turned it on, and it booted to life.

An introduction to WireGuard VPN

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

1. Why WireGuard?

When it comes to encrypting traffic between systems, there are a wide variety of different Virtual Private Network (VPN) software available, some of which have been used since the 1990s. Each of them focus on different encryption algorithms and flow control strategies, alongside mechanisms for providing for secure authentication and negotiating encryption keys. Unfortunately, this complexity often translates to more problems, slower traffic, as well fewer use cases and supported operating systems.

2020 in review

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I know what you’re thinking - 2020 sucked! Worst year ever! The COVID-19 pandemic, no social gatherings, no dine-in restaurants, no gyms, the US Trumpster fire, and most importantly to those of us in the tech world: Red Hat terminating CentOS development.

Of course, most people will remember 2020 for the pandemic, and that’s completely understandable. None of us have experienced a pandemic in our lifetime, and both our society and economy were not prepared to deal with it gracefully. Many businesses folded or downsized, and the lack of social contact caused mental health issues for many people of all ages.

Seldom discussed tips for working in the tech industry

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

There are plenty of blog posts on the Web that give sage advice for anyone working in the tech industry. However, most of them focus on the same topics: time management, resourcefulness, continuous learning, verbal and written communication skills, caffeine consumption, and so on.

In this blog post, I’ll discuss 6 tech industry tips that are rarely discussed online, but that are equally (if not more) important from my experience over the past three decades in this industry.

5 Z shell features that will encourage you to switch from Bash

Sun, 01 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The command line interface on your system is provided by a shell. And while there are dozens of different shells available to choose from, nearly every UNIX and Linux system over the past two decades has used the feature-rich Bash shell as the default login shell.

Although the Bash shell still remains the most common login shell used on UNIX and Linux systems, macOS and a few Linux distributions (e.g. Kali) have switched their default shell to the Z shell (zsh), and this trend is likely to continue. The Z shell has been around for three decades, and is the second most popular shell next to Bash.

Why I love teaching online

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

When the pandemic hit earlier this year, schools around the globe quickly embraced online teaching to continue their curriculum. While online teaching wasn’t entirely new in this space, it certainly wasn’t the norm. This meant that many teachers had to adapt quickly, as these 2 funny videos illustrate:

However, I’ve loved every part of this transition because I absolutely love teaching tech courses online.

Grant you, I’ve had some practice prior to 2020, as well as a general interest in how the Web could be used for education. Back in the early 2000s, I designed and wrote all of the online Linux curriculum for Caldera (including the HTML and Perl scripts that hosted it). It was an early stab at online education that had as many faults as it did benefits, but I learned a great deal during the process. Years later, I got to refine what I learned during my online computer science courses at Nova Southeastern, as well as the Train-the-Trainer courses I taught for CompTIA. By this time, technology had caught up to the needs of education, and online education was quite mature with a set of common best practices and technologies that everyone implemented.

A brief history of technology

Sun, 04 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Technology is a crazy ride, and like that lyric in the Talking Heads song Once in a Lifetime, “…you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?”

If that’s the case, you’re in luck, because this post is a no-nonsense, give-me-the-big-picture timeline of what the heck happened in the technology landscape these past 50 years. Of course, not every little detail is in there. Just those that are actually important (in my expert opinion, of course ;-) Enjoy!

Cybersecurity in the early 1990's

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, I remember collecting MS-DOS computer viruses. I’d download them from an online Bulletin Board System (BBS) and store them on floppy disks in compressed format to prevent them from executing. For fun, some friends and I would occasionally release them on one of our systems to see what they did, and then reinstall MS-DOS afterwards. Most viruses didn’t do very much, but some others (e.g. BBkiller) would remove or modify the contents of files.

Most people don't want a computer

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In the past few decades, people of all ages across North America have become technology-literate in some way or another. Many of them weren’t introduced to technology via desktop or laptop computers, but instead through a smartphone or tablet. Similarly, many desktop and laptop users have switched to using their smartphone or tablet over the past decade to interact with the online world.

After all, smartphones and tablets are incredibly easy to use. You open an app to do what you want (social media, shopping, taking pics of food, etc.), and the rest can be done in a Web browser. It doesn’t matter where your files are stored locally because they’re easily searchable, and they’re automatically synced to the cloud so that you don’t lose them.

Open does not always mean Open Source

Sun, 16 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In the technology world today, the term Open is most commonly associated with Open Source.

Open Source refers to software released under a license that gives other software developers access to modify the original Source code that was used to create the software. This, in turn allows other software developers worldwide to quickly identify and fix bugs and security loopholes, as well as make feature improvements to the software. Consequently, Open Source software evolves more rapidly than other (Closed Source) software, and is considered the gold standard for software today.

Tracing difficult shell scripts

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Whether you’re an IT systems administrator, developer or devop working with Linux/UNIX shell scripts, you’re likely going to come across some that are not well documented and difficult to trace (read and understand) as a result.

While these scripts discourage others from tracing them, you can easily trace even the most difficult shell scripts if you follow good tracing procedures. Moreover, by tracing a difficult shell script, you build your knowledge of specific Linux/UNIX components, as well as scripting in general.

So, you think online conferencing is new?

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The city that I live in (Cambridge, Ontario) was formed as an amalgamation of three smaller towns (Hespeler, Preston and Galt) in 1973. Hespeler gets its name from Jacob Hespeler, who built an impressive industrial empire in the town in 1845. Through his widespread influence, he secured railway access, as well as attracted engineering talent from as far away as Europe. By the start of World War I, Hespeler housed the largest textile mill in the British Empire, and had an electric passenger railway (Grand River Railway) that allowed easy transit to the rest of the region.

Fundamental computer science concepts every software developer should know

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

To be a software developer (a.k.a. programmer or software engineer) today, you don’t need a degree in computer science. In fact, computer science really isn’t about “how” you develop software today at all. It’s about how we approach software problems theoretically. And to be frank, you don’t need to worry about computer science theory to be a good software developer today. You just need to know how to solve problems using code, be good at using existing software frameworks, as well as know how to Google stuff and read programming language documentation.

The old Web was fun

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I was around during the birth of the web in the early 1990s and have enjoyed every twist and turn since then. Even before creating my own personal website and blog (this site) in 1998, I maintained the Department of Science website at UW (originally http://sciborg.uwaterloo.ca).

And while I’ve enjoyed watching the evolution of the web, I still think the old web was more fun. In this blog post, I’ll tell you why. But first, let’s cover some background info!

Customizing macOS for development

Mon, 18 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

So your boss gave you a Mac for development. Or maybe you bought a Mac to develop iOS apps. Or maybe you bought a MacBook because you need to develop software as well as look good at Starbucks (after the pandemic is over, of course).

Unfortunately doing serious development using macOS is cumbersome at best. The Aqua desktop in macOS has few features or components geared towards developers. If you look over the shoulder of most Mac users, you’ll notice that their desktop looks like a very messy desk. The more you use macOS, the more you realize this messy desktop practice is caused by the design of Aqua and not the user. After all, Apple designed every aspect of Aqua to fit the needs of the most novice users, and not power users such as developers. Luckily, there are several things you can do to tweak your Mac into a fast developer workstation that boasts an interface with the productivity features you’re used to on Windows 10 and Linux desktops. In this blog post, I’ll share my general recommendations for turning macOS into a developer workstation.

FreeBSD UNIX for Linux sysadmins

Sat, 02 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If you’ve ever installed and explored another Linux distro (what Linux sysadmin hasn’t?!?), then exploring FreeBSD is going be somewhat similar with a few key differences. While there is no graphical installation, the installation process is straightforward and similar to installing a server-based Linux distro. Just make sure you choose the local_unbound package when prompted if you want to cache DNS lookups locally, as FreeBSD doesn’t have a built-in local DNS resolver that does this.

Microsoft turns 45

Sat, 04 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

On April 4th 1975, a small company called Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They would later become the most pivotal company in the technology world, and their co-founder Bill Gates would become the world’s most prolific philanthropist.

Like many tech companies, Microsoft has had a colourful past. Started by two whiz kids (Paul Allen and Bill Gates), they started by selling operating system and supporting software.

Getting the most out of your online course

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The COVID-19 virus has forced colleges and universities in Ontario to quickly move their stuff to an online format to allow classes to continue using social isolation.

As a learner, this means that you’ll be immersed in a new learning format that is very different from a physical classroom environment. Both physical and online learning have their own unique advantages, and you’ll likely be engaging in both over the course of your career. As a result, it’s good to familiarize yourself with online learning sooner than later!

Tips to survive teaching an online course

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The COVID-19 virus has forced colleges and universities in Canada to quickly move their stuff to an online format to allow classes to continue using social isolation. One teacher even wrote a funny song about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCe5PaeAeew

I’m luckier than most, since I’ve been doing online seminars and classes for a wide variety of different organizations for many years now. Most of these sessions have been Train the Trainer (TTT) classes where I teach a course to other technical instructors worldwide. Apparently I’ve gotten so good at it that I was voted best TTT instructor in 2019 by members of the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), and won their annual award at their summit in Vegas!

How to write an academic technical textbook

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If you head over to My published books page, you’ll see that I’ve written a large number of textbooks over the years for different publishers, as well as worked as a technical editor for many other titles.

Just this past week, I mentioned to a coworker that I’ve finished submitting the AU1 of the final chapter for my latest textbook Hands-On Windows Server 2019, ISBN: 978-0-357-43615-8 (I’ve revised this blog post in June to include a pic of my first printed copy).

I finally beat Tetris!

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve finally done it. I’ve beaten the game Tetris.

More specifically, Atari 2-player arcade Tetris, which is the best version of Tetris ever released (in my opinion) and the one that was available in arcades before Nintendo secured the rights to the game from the Soviet Union.

A few years ago, my daughter and I picked up a Taito arcade cabinet that I restored to play Tetris using the original Atari arcade game printed circuit board (PCB). I accidentally smashed the neck of the CRT monitor when removing it, so I installed a Wells-Gardner arcade LCD (which takes the CGA video signals generated by the Atari Tetris game PCB inside the cabinet), as well as a matching HAPP bezel to make it look great, as shown below. And I’ve played it quite a bit - Tetris has always been one of my favourite games, and is a great way of relieving stress and regaining focus after a long day.

2019 in review

Sun, 22 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This year was flat-out awesome! I can’t think of many years in the past decade that had the same amount of academic, physical, and personal fulfillment all in one year!

On the academic side, I presented a 12-week Linux+ webinar series at night to IT instructors worldwide for the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) Instructor Network.

This, of course, fit well since I just finished writing the 5th edition of my Linux textbook for Cengage (Linux+ & LPIC Guide to Linux Certification).

Reviving an ancient BSD UNIX workstation

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Most people will look at this 3-foot-long behemoth of ancient electronics and wonder why it wasn’t scrapped decades ago. But for many of us in the tech industry, these ancient machines are a way to peer into the early days of an industry that has twisted and evolved in leaps and bounds, leaving nearly every player that shaped its landscape forgotten in time.

The machine sitting in my driveway at the top of this post is a workstation from the early 1980s with a NS32016 CPU (the first 32-bit general purpose microprocessor) and a whopping 1MB of RAM. It’s running Genix (BSD UNIX for the NS32016) and performs at a speed of 2.5 MIPS. For comparison, a modern AMD Ryzen 7 system performs at over 300,000 MIPS.

Why you should use technology less

Sun, 06 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past few years, I’ve taken to using technology less and less in my daily life.

I leave my phone in the car when going to a party or social event. I’ll only fetch it if I want to take a picture, and only after appreciating the moment I’d like to capture to the fullest.
When I listen to music on my phone (via headphones) during the long walks I take to get exercise and relax, I don’t check my phone at all. If the environment around me is interesting enough, I’ll stop the music to take in the sounds around me.
I limit the time I spend perusing social media to 15 minutes at a time, and only when I’m in a relaxed mood, often in the evening. If I’m sent an interesting article during the day, I’ll quickly post it to LinkedIn/Twitter to share with others who could benefit from it, but not use that opportunity to browse other’s posts.
When it comes to work commitments, I will call or meet with people when possible, rather than message or email them.

A decade ago, my habits were entirely different:

What it's like a year after quitting Facebook

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Just under a year ago, I quit Facebook. Yup. After a decade of using it frequently, with over 10,000 posts and 7,000 pictures.

It was the best decision I made.

The original premise of Facebook has always appealed to me: connect with others you know in real life, but online, in order to share pictures and information to keep current. But it also has a lot of negatives:

How to learn vi (vim)

Tue, 27 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

1. So, what is vi (and vim)?

One of the most important tools for any developer or sysadmin on UNIX and Linux systems is a text editor. Mastering a text editor allows you to quickly create and edit the source code for programs, scripts and configuration files (nearly all configuration on a UNIX/Linux system is stored as text).

The vi editor has been one of the most common (if not THE most common) text editor on these systems since it was created in 1969 by Bill Joy. It was a visual extension to the 1969 ex line-based text editor used back when UNIX terminals looked like a printer with a keyboard, and you had to edit an existing text file using obscure commands (without seeing the actual file on your screen):

What Nokia tells us about the Internet in 2008

Sat, 17 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

While cleaning out a drawer last night, I came across my old, beloved Nokia N810 Internet appliance that I bought in early 2008. This thing was sexy and entirely made of aluminum. It had a touchscreen (and stylus), backlit slide-out keyboard, expandable SD storage, GPS and front-facing webcam running Maemo Linux on an ARM CPU.

The N810 came out shortly after the iPhone in 2007, and just before Android phones started hitting the market en mass in 2008. But the N810 was not a phone at all. Instead, it was a portable WiFi-only, Internet-in-your-pocket device, and something that appealed tremendously to me when I first saw it reviewed on the GeekBrief podcast with Cali Lewis. Better yet, using the promo code on the podcast gave you 20% off and free shipping if you were in the US. When I phoned Nokia, they gladly honoured the deal for me in Canada, and I scored one for under $400 CDN.

The different faces of open source software

Fri, 09 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The term open source has become a household term in software circles. Most people who work with technology in some capacity know that the Linux operating system is open source, as is the Firefox Web browser and much of the software that runs on their Android phone.

However, when it comes to defining open source, most people I’ve talked to aren’t that clear on what it is and how it works, but can often list these three aspects:

Apple is regressing to their 1990s disposition

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A friend of mine found himself working for a school in the mid 1990s, deploying a new lab of Apple Mac computers designed to teach graphic design. Before the deployment, he went to the technology decision-makers and told them that they could build a much faster lab for half the cost, since their Adobe software can also run on PC. He also noted that Macs play well with other proprietary Apple stuff, whereas PCs played well with most technologies and had a much longer useful lifetime due to upgradability. It was where the industry was moving, and it made logical sense to move in that direction.

Rest in Peace, MAD Magazine

Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This past week, MAD Magazine announced that, after 67 years, it would cease publication by the end of the year. Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising - print magazines have been going extinct for almost two decades already. I honestly can’t remember the last time I bought a magazine of any kind.

The Internet has killed print publication just like video killed the radio star.

But I’m sad for MAD. I have many fond memories of it growing up in the 1980s. Each summer growing up, my grandparents would take my sister and I up to a cottage in Dwight (which has the most amazing beach in Muskoka). And the first stop when we got there was the small mom and pop general store, so that we could pick up groceries and reading material to keep up occupied when we weren’t at the beach. I always chose MAD Magazine (all of the different issues they had at the time).

The UNIX Philosophy in 2019

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this week, I did a presentation for WWITPRO that detailed the UNIX philosophy and its relevance today. Given the subject matter, I decided to do the presentation in PostScript on my SPARCbook running Sun Solaris 2.5.1. This blog post details the content of the presentation for posterity!

What is UNIX?

Simply put, UNIX is an operating system that was created by Ken Thompson in 1969 that was rewritten shortly thereafter in Dennis Ritchie’s C programming language.

The Dark Side of GNU

Sun, 12 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In computing, GNU (which stands for “GNU’s Not UNIX”) started as a project led by Richard Stallman aimed to replace all of the components of the UNIX operating system with freely-developed versions.

It also led to the creation of the GNU Public License (GPL) that protected freely-developed software from being exploited by others. Software released under the GPL is commonly called open source software today, and there are dozens of open source licenses available in addition to the GPL.

How ricing shifted from cars to computers

Sun, 07 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Back in the early 1990s, teenagers with a drivers license made a hobby of tweaking out their cars - adding custom grills, spoilers, paint jobs, and so on. The more crazy, the better. And since the most common car to perform these modifications on were older Honda Civics, which you could get fairly cheap at the time, especially if they were more than 5 years old and needed a bit of work.

SPARCbook 3000ST: The coolest 90s laptop

Thu, 14 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks back I managed to pick up an incredibly rare laptop in immaculate condition for $50 on Kijiji: a Tadpole Technologies SPARCbook 3000ST from 1997 (it also came with two other working Pentium laptops from the 1990s).

I had to drive almost three hours to pick it up on the other side of Toronto, but for a SPARCbook it was definitely worth it seeing as I’m more likely to find the lost city of Atlantis than another one of these again.

Pop!_OS: The first real Linux desktop

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Tonight I gave a presentation at the Kitchener-Waterloo Linux User’s Group (KWLUG) about Pop!_OS, and this blog post is essentially a summary of that talk. The Linux development community has never really spent a lot of time making Linux for the desktop - the focus has been on servers and customizability (e.g. embedded systems, mobile, IoT, etc.). There are plenty of desktop-focused Linux distributions such as Linux Mint and ElementaryOS that have positioned themselves as such. But the hard reality is that nobody treats them as something other than “yet another Linux distribution that isn’t as good as Ubuntu or Fedora.”

The Power of Open Source Software

Thu, 21 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Two decades ago, a piece of open source software I wrote for a Canadian HPC project caught the attention of someone working for NASA JPL, and after a few emails and a call regarding our experience applying it, a modified version of it was used in a small way to help the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission involving the rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

With last week’s announcement that the MER mission is officially over, it’s nice to know that a piece of software I wrote helped, even if it was in a small way - it made me smile over coffee that morning, and it’s made me smile several times since then!

Cult of Mac Book

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I was out at a social event with a bunch of guys and gals from the local Linux/UNIX/developer/IT community (contrary to popular opinion, Linux/UNIX people know how to party hard).

At one point during the night, we were sitting at a round booth and poking fun at a total Apple fanboy in our group. Someone called him a “Cult of Mac member” and he replied, “And proud to be one - I could write the book on the cult!” to which I replied, “Firstly, you’re not an accomplished author. Secondly, as a cult survivor, I’m the one who should be writing the book.”

35th Anniversary of the Macintosh Computer

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

35 years ago today, Apple announced their Macintosh computer. What made the Macintosh radically different at the time was its graphical user interface (GUI) that was navigated using a mouse (mice were very uncommon in 1984!).

The first Macintosh only had 128K of RAM and a Motorola 68000 CPU, but it was pretty snappy for the time. The picture at the top of this post is of my daughter next to an original Macintosh 128K (and yes, it still works).

Using the Windows Subsystem for Linux

Mon, 07 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

1. So what is WSL?

Simply put, it’s a kernel interface (lxcore & lxss) that allows 64-bit Linux binaries to run on a Window 10 or Windows Server 2019 kernel.

All you need to do is add the userland (file system structure and programs) from an existing Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu, Kali, Debian or SUSE, and that Linux distribution will run natively on the Windows kernel!

You must access the Linux distribution via a Windows program that associates the userland of the Linux distribution to the WSL (e.g. for Kali Linux, this would be kali.exe), and you can install and use multiple Linux distribution userlands simultaneously with the WSL.

2018 in review

Fri, 21 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

At the end of each year, I take some time to reflect on the previous year - it provides perspective, and is a lot of fun!

For me, 2018 was the year I spent a lot of time improving myself physically, challenging myself mentally, and most importantly, enjoying life!

On the personal side, I cut out the bad foods from my diet:

breads
starches
alcohol

On top of this, I upped my indoor and outdoor exercise to lose a whopping 85 pounds since mid 2017 - I feel great, have loads of energy, and no longer have any back pain whatsoever!

SSH Foo

Sun, 09 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Last week, I gave a presentation at a local LUG (which is a Linux User’s Group, for anyone who hasn’t heard of those before) on the subject of SSH Foo.

In UNIX circles, we refer to tricks of the trade as “Kung Fu” or just “Fu” (which sounds rude), so it is spelled “Foo” ;-)

In this blog post, I’ll summarize my SSH Foo talk! Be aware that this is not an introduction to SSH, but a more advanced look at some interesting SSH features for those who are already comfortable with it. As such, I’ve kept to point form here to allow you to skim to the parts you are most interested in!

Three reasons why incubators breed failure

Fri, 19 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

These past few years, I’ve provided various types of support for some tech incubators in the Kitchener-Waterloo region where I live (it’s a complex arrangement that I won’t go into within this post, but mostly involves helping people with technology implementation issues related to software). It’s not hard to find tech incubators nowadays - they’ve become quite popular this past decade, and larger cities often have several incubators of various sizes.

How the cloud grew up around Linux

Tue, 02 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Open source software has had a powerful effect on computing. When the ARPANET/NSFNET was sold to different companies in the 1990s to create the commercial Internet, nobody expected it to grow as fast as it did. It was the open source Apache Web server running on the open source Linux (and BSD UNIX) operating system that ultimately allowed the Internet to grow quickly and attract the attention of the world. Apache on Linux allowed anyone with a computer and Internet connection to implement a Web server to serve Web pages as part of the World Wide Web of Internet resources. In short, if there was no open source Web server or operating system freely available in the 1990s, the rise of the Internet would have been dramatically slower or even non-existent until the 2000s. The Internet and the World Wide Web grew up around open source and Linux.

A simple guide to git

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Simply put, Git is a version control system that can be used to keep track of the changes that you make to files over time - it allows you to revert files to a previous state, or see who made changes to a file at different times if several people are working the those files collaboratively.

Git was original developed back in 2005 by Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux) to aid in making changes to the Linux kernel, but has since become the most common open source version control system used today. You can run Git on most platforms, including Windows, Linux and macOS. Although people primarily use it today for version controlling software projects, you can use it to provide version control for any files on your system. In this blog post, I’ll use it to provide version control and central access for Linux shell scripts (something that is very useful for Linux administrators).

Devops Demystified

Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Last week, my friend Scott Elliott did a great guest presentation at the college where he talked about, amongst other things, devops. Moreover, I’ve been involved myself in the setup and configuration of two software development workflows (which technically makes me a devop); one was in 2017 for a tech startup in Kitchener, and the other one was earlier this year for a much larger project at the University of Waterloo.

Blockchain for IT pros

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

IT professionals are often asked to describe technologies to others within their organization, and this includes buzz words they may have heard in some tech article or trade magazine:

There’s definitely no shortage of these buzz words in the tech industry - “the cloud,” “the Web 2.0,” “XaaS,” “CyberSecurity,” and of course “bitcoin” and “blockchain” are layered as thick as possible within articles and blogs to bolster clicks, likes and shares.

Halt and Catch Fire

Sat, 26 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Halt and Catch Fire is an AMC television series that ran for four seasons from 2014-2017, and covers the culture and pivotal aspects of the computing industry from 1983 (just after the release of the IBM PC) to 1994 (when the Internet and World Wide Web exploded).

You can binge watch it on Netflix if you like today, and trust me - you won’t be disappointed! Halt and Catch Fire is the best drama I’ve ever seen - an emotional rollercoaster like no other. The characters are unforgettable, the acting is nothing short of phenomenal, and the entire series has an incredible message about technology and human progress that you only get once you see the final episode!

Lessons I've learned from teaching 20 years of IT

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I actually started teaching on April 13th 1998 (20 years ago today).

It was my final year as a student at the University of Waterloo, and as I was finishing up writing my final exams I realized that I needed to actually go out and get a real job to support my family (I was married with a daughter at the time).

Prior to that, I had worked on some very cool technology projects for various companies (including some big names like Microsoft, DEC and SUN), as well as worked for the University as a Web developer and sysadmin. I also worked for many years as a teaching assistant and courseware editor for Peter Chieh’s nuclear chemistry course….after all, most of my academic background was in science, which is where most of the computer science talent was back in the 1990s!

Ultimate UNIX timeline

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

One thing that has always annoyed me about the Internet surrounds the history and evolution of UNIX-based operating systems. If you Google “UNIX timeline”, you’ll get a bunch of different results that are either incomplete, incorrect, complicated to the point where it’s unreadable, or a combination of all of these things.

So this blog post aims to rectify this!

Here are some important things to note about UNIX in general and each of the UNIX flavours depicted on this timeline:

RIP PowerBook

Tue, 13 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I took the picture at the top of this post sitting in Starbucks recently with my trusty, 12-year-old PowerBook G4 laptop from Apple. Those sitting around me have no idea how ancient my laptop is - they probably see the glow from the Apple logo on the back and realize that it’s just another Apple laptop.

But it’s more than just another laptop to me. It’s written over a dozen textbooks for various publishers, created countless curriculum documents for my college, and given well over a hundred presentations. It’s done the work of 20 laptops.

The history of IT certification

Mon, 19 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Nearly everyone working in an Information Technology (IT) field has at least one IT-related certification. This is because IT certification is commonly used as a skills benchmark for hiring and promotion, and it’s been that way for a long, long time.

So where did all this certification stuff start? If you look online, there isn’t even a Wikipedia page that can give you that answer - like many things in the technology world that predated the Internet, it just wasn’t important enough to keep track of in the Internet Age that started in the 1990s.

2017 in review

Sat, 30 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

So what happened in 2017?

Last year I thought I completed my basement arcade by getting Donkey Kong (see my blog post entitled “2016 in review”), but I was wrong! I actually got two new arcade games this year. The first one was an arcade machine I never thought I’d find in good working condition. It’s also the absolute coolest arcade game of the 1980s with its amazing vector graphics (as well as my all-time favourite arcade game)…….Atari’s Tempest!

RIP Solaris

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The 80s and 90s was a period of intense development in the computer hardware and software worlds. On the hardware side, processors started to become much more powerful, and the word on the streets was that RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) was going to be the way of the future. Powerful RISC platforms emerged during this time, including Sun Microsystems SPARC, HP PA-RISC, SGI MIPS, IBM PowerPC, and the DEC Alpha - these platforms were very powerful, and ushered in 64-bit computing over a decade before it became common in home computers.

Windows and macOS could move to Linux

Wed, 09 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

For those in the tech world, the title of this post may seem both radical and pretentious.

However, in the following four parts of this blog post, I hope to shed light on why this is a real possibility in the not-so-distant future and why.

PART 1: OS overview

First of all, an operating system (OS) is essentially the core software that allows your computer to run - it provides a core component (called a kernel) that understands how to use the hardware in your computer, a user interface (e.g. your Desktop), as well as a rich set of software libraries and frameworks that allow apps to run. These software libraries and frameworks are specific to your OS and are often called a platform. For example, you can develop an app for the Windows platform, or you can develop and app for the macOS or Linux platforms. When it comes to mobile devices, iOS is just a mobile version of macOS, and Android is just Linux with an Android framework on top - as a result, we can really say that the three main OS platforms available today are Windows, macOS and Linux.

Get ready for the chip wars!

Sat, 22 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Intel and their x86 computing architecture have pretty much dominated the computing industry since the late 1980s. In other words, nearly all computers that you’ve used at work or home for the past three decades have used Intel’s proprietary x86 (and later, x64) CPUs. The Intel 80-386 running DOS and Win3.1 won the PC wars by the early 1990s. Then came the Intel 80-486, Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium IV, Core Duos, Core i7s, as well as the AMD equivalents that ran the same x86/x64 instruction sets.

Why you should buy an old arcade machine

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Why on earth would anyone want to buy a video game the size of a refrigerator?!?

The simple answer: It’s the best bang for your buck!

Since the dawn of video games in the 1970s, video game makers have been all about making as much money as they can. Today, a game console will cost you about $500, and the games anywhere from $40-80 each on top of it. - if you go the Nintendo route, expect to sink just as much if not more. A gaming PC is even more expensive, and the games will run you even more than console games when you get hooked. Mobile gaming is somewhat inexpensive if you don’t mind seeing plenty of ads, and don’t spend money to unlock the cool features of each game (a marketing technique called micro-transactions). It’s big business, and you don’t get good gameplay value, even if you spend all day playing the games.

Finding Idylwild Park

Sun, 14 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I grew up (and currently live) in the city of Cambridge in Ontario, Canada. The city was formed when 3 smaller towns (Hespeler, Preston and Galt) amalgamated in 1973, but the towns have a rich history as some of the key centers for industry in Upper Canada during the 1800s and early 1900s.

When I was Googling something related to the new light rail transit system currently being installed in the region, I came across a Wikipedia page where I learned that there was an electric passenger railway between Hespeler, Preston and Galt from the late 1800s until 1955 called the Galt, Preston & Hespeler (GP&H) Street Railway. To encourage people to use the train on the weekends, the company that owned the railway opened a recreational park between Hespeler and Preston called Idylwild Park. The entrance to the park is shown in the picture at the top of this blog post, and the postcard below shows that the entrance was right next to the railway tracks (with a short bypass section):

50 shades of Cray

Mon, 03 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

If you wanted a fast computer back in 1976, you bought the 5.5 ton, $9 million Cray-1 made by Cray Research. The Cray-1 was dubbed the first supercomputer as it was designed to be much faster than other (more massive) computers of the time.

It was incredibly successful in the large computing space and Cray subsequently released a much faster model called the Cray X-MP in 1983 (shown in the picture at the top of this post). By today’s standards, the Cray X-MP was nothing special (it was only half as powerful as an original Xbox from 2001). but for the 1980s, it was incredibly powerful! The graphics in the movie “The Last Starfighter” were created on a Cray X-MP.

Futuretech '92

Thu, 16 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This year marks Canada’s 150th anniversary (1867-2017), and while there are some cool events happening this year (e.g. National Parks have free admission), there really isn’t a lot of hoopla surrounding it.

However, I have very fond memories of Canada’s 125th anniversary in 1992, because that’s when I got to go to Alberta as part of a student enrichment event.

In the summer of 1992, the Canadian government hosted an event called Futuretech ’92, where 125 of the top students from Eastern Canada were flown to Calgary for a week of educational motivation, and 125 of the top students from Western Canada were flown to Montreal for the same.

The future of smartphones

Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

As you can see from the picture at the top of this post, last week BlackBerry’s smartphone market share fell to 0% in the global marketplace. In all fairness, this number reflects the number of devices running BlackBerry OS (not the number of BlackBerry-branded Android devices, which together with all other Android devices, comprise 82% of the market).

If you think back to 2007, BlackBerry pretty much owned the smartphone world that they created - they were too big to fail, and too proud to accept that Apple and Google could eat their cake. But 10 years later, they’re a niche company trying to peddle their security and smartphone management software to any Fortune 500 company that still has fond memories of their brand. It’s a stark reminder of how quickly the tech industry can change, and how unforgiving it can be to those left behind.

2016 in review

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

For the past years, I’ve done a “year in review” blog post, and of course this one is for 2016! It’s a great way to reflect on the events that have happened during the year, and to honest, is actually a lot of fun!

Just a quick disclaimer: I have no intention of talking about the shallow-but-popular celebrity death fixation that has taken over the Internet (must be a millennial thing). That being said, when I heard that Prince died, it led me to watch Purple Rain again (great movie), so there’s a plus.

10 years of Facebook humour

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

While most of my posts are pictures (funny pictures, persona pictures, memes, etc.), I’ve also got lots of funny text posts. I got a chuckle out of reading them again, so I thought I’d share them here for others to enjoy!

Here they are, sorted from newest to oldest:

If you want to rapidly get through a crowded area, just carry a clipboard and try to make eye contact with people. People will give you space….fast ;-)

An evening with The Woz

Thu, 29 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I specifically attended yesterday’s Fuzenation Technology & Music Summit in Kitchener, Ontario to hear Steve Wozniak (a.k.a. The Woz) speak.

In short, he’s the co-founder of Apple, and the engineer who created the Apple I and Apple II computers. The Apple II was the first successful, mass-produced personal computer, and as the Woz points out, the “first one that could play arcade games in full colour” (I still have an Apple II that I use to play arcade games like Donkey Kong).

The Linux operating system turns 25 years old today

Thu, 25 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Linux operating system!

More specifically, it marks the day that Linus Torvalds announced his new operating system (that was later called Linux) in a newsgroup post:

From:torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroup: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Message-ID: 1991Aug25, 20578.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki.

Hello everybody out there using minix-

I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big
and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has
been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like
any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix; as my OS
resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system
due to practical reasons)among other things.

I've currently ported bash (1.08) an gcc (1.40), and things seem to work.
This implies that i'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd
like to know what features most people want. Any suggestions are welcome,
but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

Linus Torvalds torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi

So what is Linux?

Linux is a free and open source operating system that runs on millions of computers and devices today. But in order to understand what that means, let’s start by looking at how Linux came to be…

The World Wide Web turns 25 years old today

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

On August 6, 1991, Tim Berners-Lee created a post detailing his World Wide Web project on a newsgroup called alt.hypertext in order to entice others to collaborate with him and create and host Web pages for the World Wide Web. However, it wasn’t until August 23, 1991 that it was made publicly accessible for the world to see. You could argue that August 6 is the real birth of the World Wide Web, but most websites and news aggregators acknowledge August 23 as the true birth of the World Wide Web, including Facebook, which included it as a news item today for everyone!

The dawn of personal computing

Fri, 12 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

If you know me, or have read various sections of my website, you’ll know that I am a die hard member of the computing industry that also likes to collect vintage computers (this is actually quite common - you’d be surprised how many of my colleagues do the same).

Yesterday, I managed to find a very interesting canvas painting in Toronto (the picture at the top of this post), and just HAD to have it. From the signature, it was painted in 1983 by what looks like T., N., or M. McLaughlin:

Some NeXT level stuff

Fri, 29 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

1. What is NeXT? (pun intended)

NeXT was the computer company that Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple) created after he got kicked out of Apple in the 1980s. They made high-end UNIX workstations that were intended to rival Apple computers, and primarily targeted for the higher education and science/engineering markets. However, they were not as successful as their competitors in this market and when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he ensured that Apple purchased NeXT.

Video Game Reflections

Tue, 26 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The Atari days

When it came to video games growing up, my parents were fairly progressive – although they had no desire to play them, they didn’t see them as anything but fun and somewhat educational. And in the early 80s, when home game consoles were all the rage, my parents bought us an Atari 2600 (the all-black “Darth Vader” model shown to the right) and some games.

We lived in a big old house, and there was a very large, unused room upstairs (we affectionately called “the back room”) that was used as the toy/Atari room. My sister was a few years younger than I was, and didn’t have much interest in the Atari, so I was the one that played it the most. I remember playing Berzerk on the Atari 2600 until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.

PowerShell Essentials for SysAdmins

Sun, 06 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

PowerShell is essentially a scripting language and shell (command prompt) that you can use on Windows systems. It’s basically Microsoft’s way of getting a powerful UNIX/Linux/Mac-like shell on the Windows platform (long overdue!). The first versions of PowerShell were pretty horrific, but it’s come a long way since then. PowerShell v4 and later is pretty decent (Win10 comes with PowerShell v5). Luckily, PowerShell v4 comes with Windows Server 2012, and since this post is geared towards sysadmins, I’ll focus everything on Windows Server 2012.

2015 in review

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

2015 was an interesting year, and one that I really enjoyed!

I spent a lot of time getting/restoring/playing the last few arcade machines that I’ve wanted in my arcade collection - I just love the retro arcade hobby! As a result, I won’t be getting or restoring any more in 2016 at all (I have a few arcades that I want to work on to upgrade, but that’s about it). I’ll be spending most of my time playing them!

World of Commodore conference

Sat, 05 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This is the first year that I’ve been to the World of Commodore event in Mississauga, Ontario. It’s a yearly gathering of Commodorks who create new software and hardware for vintage Commodore computers. I had no idea that it even existed until someone I knew told me about it. Since it’s relatively close to me, I just had to go. Plus, I have many Commodore computers in my vintage computer collection.

Video game transcendental meditation

Sun, 12 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000

What is transcendental meditation?

Transcendental meditation is the most commonly practiced form of meditation in the world. People who practice it often listen to, or repeat, a particular sound or mantra in order to reach a relaxed state of consciousness. It’s been praised by many for decades as a means of lowering stress and anxiety.

What is a “flow state” within a video game?

Video games that require quick thinking, fast reflexes and precision are often difficult to excel at - but with practice, the game can be mastered. When mastered, the player’s physical precision is almost effortless (encoded in “muscle memory”), the the thought processes seem perfectly natural. It’s as if your mind is actually “in” the game. This state is often called “the zone” by gamers, or a “flow state” by psychologists.

Breathe new life into an old PowerBook G4 using Linux

Mon, 02 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

So what do you do when you have an old PowerBook that still works but can’t run the latest operating system (OS) and software? Well, you could sell it - but it won’t fetch much at all (less than $50 in most cases).

A better option is to install a currently-supported OS that runs really well on limited hardware…….in other words, install Linux on it!

I recently installed the latest version of Debian Linux on my PowerBook G4 to make it useful again. With only 1.25 GB of RAM and a 1.5 GHz PowerPC CPU, it could only run Mac OS 10.5 (very old), and nearly all Mac software programs, including Web browsers, have discontinued support for PowerPC-based Macs. In other words, you won’t get new versions of software if you have an old PowerPC-based Mac running Mac OS 10.5….

2014 in review

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I think it’s always a good idea each year to reflect on the events that happened during the year - it’s a great way to remember some of the great things that have happened, as well as put some of the not-so-great things that have happened in perspective. If you regularly post to social media (e.g. Facebook or Twitter), looking back on your posts are a great way to revisit the major events that took place during the year. Better yet, by summarizing them in a blog post (as I’m doing here), you’ll preserve those events for posterity and make it easy to revisit them in distant years too!

GMOs explained

Fri, 14 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Like many other people who hold a degree in science, I look at people who are currently upset about GMO products with pity and disdain. They don’t know what it is, but they’re willing to call it evil for whatever reason.

GMO stands for genetically modified organism, which is essentially any organism (plant, animal, amoeba, etc.) that has had its DNA modified in some way. DNA are the blueprints of a living cell that in turn produce the RNA that produces the proteins that make up the useful bits of the cell itself.

The fastest computer I have ever owned!

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged last….I’ve just been incredibly busy. This past month, I’ve been teaching a video game class at the college, writing the 4th edition of my Linux+ book for Cengage on an accelerated schedule, and managing four technology faculties……all at the same time!

But today, I got a new computer: A Mac Pro (the higher end 6-core Xeon model with dual AMD FirePro D500s). I simply connect it via HDMI to my Alienware laptop and use the Fn+F8 key combination to switch between the Windows Desktop on my Alienware, and the Mac OS Desktop on my Mac Pro. Lots of power on a small amount of desk space!

The evolution of BYOD

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In the 1980s, email remained a luxury for a small number of larger organizations and universities. Mobile email did not exist. Instead, pagers and cellular telephones were the primary tools for mobile communication. However, in the early 1990s, email rose to prominence with the commercialization of the Internet. Although early smartphones did exist at this time (e.g. IBM’s Simon), email was not considered a mobile technology.

But by the mid 1990s, the computing landscape had exploded. PCs spread across companies like a virus, and productivity software like Microsoft Office became standard practice. Email quickly rose to prominence, and was the primary method for communication within companies by the late 1990s. Microsoft Outlook (part of Microsoft Office) allowed you to send and receive emails internally or across the internet via your company’s Microsoft Exchange Server (which is still the dominant email server today).

100 silly facts about ME

Sun, 18 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Although I don’t watch television, I’ve been watching the episodes of The Goldbergs online because it’s absolutely hilarious and I relate to a lot of the stuff in it from my own childhood experiences. The final episode of season 1 was this week, and it starts off by talking about how the father never bragged about past events (no matter how cool), and would occasionally say something that totally made you think you knew nothing about him ;-)

George H. Jenner

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The picture above is the only mall in the Hespeler area of Cambridge (where I grew up). If you look carefully, you’ll see that it’s currently being demolished (at the time of this post, it is almost entirely demolished). I moved back to Hespeler after school to raise my daughter because it was a place I knew well, and I have many fond memories of this mall because I used to work there teaching piano for George H. Jenner.

Microsoft ReFS vs Oracle ZFS - FIGHT!

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In the past, most IT admins have put their faith in systems and SANs (Storage Area Networks) that use RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) technology. RAID can be used to combine hard disks together into simple volumes (called RAID-0, or JBOD) that aren’t fault tolerant, but can also be used to create mirrored volumes where both drives are identical in case one fails (called RAID-1), or striped volumes with parity where data is written across several disks with parity information that can be used to calculate the missing data if a drive fails (called RAID-5).

Great Canadian Appathon 4

Sun, 19 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Today, we finished the fourth Great Canadian Appathon - a Canada-wide competition where students from 18 colleges and universities coast to coast compete to create a mobile video game in 48 hours for a chance to win over $35,000! And we hosted a hub at our Kitchener campus again for the whole weekend.

In short, this year’s GCA went incredibly well – everyone was pumped and loved the experience! We had students from three different campuses attend the event (Kitchener, Hamilton and London), and all teams managed to complete some amazing games and submit them before the deadline.

Impressed by a 10 year old desktop computer

Thu, 28 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Long story short, I scored a free SGI Fuel computer along with the SGI Origin 300 computer I described two posts ago.

But the SGI Fuel is a much more “usable” computer because it is a powerful single-processor graphical desktop computer (what Silicon Graphics was best known for).

Here is what it comes with:

4GB RAM
600MHz R14000A MIPS CPU (64-bit)
Two SCSI hard disks
DVD writer
Odyssey video card (DVI) that takes up the entire bottom of the cabinet
IRIX 6.5 UNIX
Street cred among UNIX nerds

To the right is a picture of the case.It’s far larger and heavier than a standard desktop PC case. And no, it’s not pink……it’s fuchsia ;-)

Why BlackBerry failed

Thu, 03 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

To be honest, I really didn’t want to do another BlackBerry-related post. It just doesn’t feel like something that interests me anymore. But today I decided to do one anyways for several reasons:

I’ve been a long-time BlackBerry user and author of their academic textbooks - as a result, I know their technology inside-out, and have worked closely with the organization.
I have lived and taught computer science in the K-W region for the past 15 years, so many of my friends and past students have worked for (or still work for) RIM.

A look back at the dotcom bubble

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Just over a decade ago, the dotcom bubble burst, and for the next 3-4 years, the IT industry (and IT job market) was in a slump.

During the last presentation I did for Game On 2.0 on August 29th, one of the audience members asked me what the dotcom bubble actually was. I supplied the standard Web answer of “overspending in the IT market” and “mismanagement of IT resources” (or something like that).

GAME ON 2.0 wraps up!

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

All good things must come to an end…..and unfortunately this also applies to the Game On 2.0 exhibition at the Ontario Science Centre, which ran for the past 6 months (starting March 9th). This Labour Day weekend is the final time that you can check it out as it closes Sept 2nd.

Our college (triOS College) was the presenting sponsor for the exhibition, which, for me was incredible - not only because I run our video game program, created the information for our game development booth, gave numerous Ontario Science Centre talks on gaming topics, and helped organize various game-themed events - but because I’m an avid retro gamer who has many of the same arcade machines and vintage consoles showcased in Game On 2.0 in my own home! For me, it was like merging my home and work lives. I could actually bring my personal passion and knowledge of retro gaming into my day job! Not many people can say that.

The evolution of Information Technology

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

As a Dean for the technology faculties of a private college in Canada, I’m always looking to make our programs more aligned to the industry - my motto is: always look forward and never look back!

However, when it comes to Information Technology (IT), I regularly find that the general perception of IT jobs is stuck in the past by at least a decade. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met people who think that IT guys are stuck in the back closet of some company doing some menial job, such as re-soldering chips on a computer motherboard much like working on the engine of an old car. {shiver}

Reddit took down my website!

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Yup - I woke up Saturday to find the message above when I visited my website. I’ve used Primus (Planet Domain) for the past 8 years as a hosting provider, and I’ve never had any issues whatsoever - including reaching my bandwidth cap.

For starters, I was a little concerned, so I logged into my cpanel and checked out the AWSTATS first:

Holy crap! Did I just get too much traffic this month? I have been doing a lot of linking to my site from twitter for Game On 2.0 at the Ontario Science Centre. So I decided to view the day-by-day bandwidth:

Marshall McLuhan was right

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone understands, to some degree, the impact that technology has on our lives. However, if you are an avid reader of “idea” books (for lack of a better word), then you also know that some people understand it poorly at best.

Take, for example, the book The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. Carr argues that the Internet has reduced our ability to carefully reason through problems and use our imagination. And plenty of people have taken the time to carefully point out the flaws in his views. And you can do it easily - just take a few moments to reflect on what you do to accomplish some of the small tasks you perform today. Now think of those same small tasks 20 years ago, and what you had to do to accomplish them back then - you’ll see a world of difference.

GAME ON 2.0 and triOS College

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The best technologies are those that spark our imagination. They create a sense of optimism about what “can” be accomplished in the future.

Atari’s Pong was one of the first technologies to do this because it allowed us to interact with our televisions, instead of just watching them. And we started thinking about the types of wonderful interactions that the future would bring to our televisions, video displays, and Holodecks (for the trekkies out there). We defended the earth against Space Invaders, and we lived in the virtual world of Tron.

Driving educational change

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In the past, education was assessment based - you sat a class, wrote down notes, memorized those notes, and wrote a test based on those notes. The focus was on following this generic structure, and not necessarily on understanding the material or building knowledge in additional areas.

Of course, some kids would understand many of these topics in good depth and be able to relate them to other topics easily - they were labelled the “smart” kids by their peers. I was labelled as one of the “smart” kids back when I was in school, but I also did a great deal of extra research and exploration on topics I wanted to learn more about. The rest of my class just followed the structure as best they could, which was perfectly acceptable by school standards at the time.

The best keynote presentation of all time!

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Today I attended the annual DIG conference. DIG stands for Digital, Interactive & Gaming, and is essentially a large conference in London, Ontario that brings together the interactive, game, and digital media companies for both networking and educational/informative sessions.

Although this year’s DIG conference was a bit smaller than last year, there were more industry professionals present, and far more meaningful conversation! Instead of the regular “hello….what do you do….let’s exchange business cards” stuff that normally goes on at these conferences, I got plenty of time to actually have in-depth discussions with dozens of different app and game developers on what was working for them, what challenges they’ve had, as well as their views on the industry and the future. I’ve never enjoyed a conference more.

The Galaga no fire cheat mystery

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In the classic arcade game Galaga (1981), there is a well-known cheat for those who are patient. If you destroy all of the enemies on Stage 1 except for the left two enemies (shown to the right), then dodge their fire for about 10-15 minutes, they stop firing at you. At this point, you can safely kill them and no enemies will fire at you for the remainder of the game (they can still crash into you to kill you though).

Mocap in action

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve always been a big fan of Ubisoft games - I remember when Splinter Cell was released for the Xbox - I spent every waking minute of my spare time playing it. I loved the graphics, shading, storyline, stealth gameplay (quite frustrating at times) - everything. In fact, I love the whole Splinter Cell series. Best yet, this series is developed almost entirely at the Ubisoft Toronto studio right now.

A successful hackathon at our Kitchener campus!

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In August, I worked with our Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) at the Kitchener campus (Mickey) to organize a 3-day Hackathon for creating Windows 8 Metro apps and games using HTML5/Javascript (technically it’s not called Metro anymore). It just took place this past weekend (Sept 7th - 9th), and was a huge undertaking for Mickey and I, but in the end it turned out amazingly well!

The college was very good at coordinating the event (somewhat last minute because of a staff change), and Microsoft was incredibly generous - they provided a ton of food (Tim Hortons breakfast each day, and a big lunch each day), t-shirts, giveaways, prizes (Microsoft ArcTouch mice for the winners, and a Windows Phone for the GoDevMental draw).

Arcade game CPUs

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been getting into arcade games pretty heavily this year, and my posts have reflected this for sure ;-) Today’s post is actually a request from John Spitz, who emailed me after reading some of my other video game posts - he wanted to know if there was a typical progression in the types of hardware used in arcade games over the years.

The short answer is “yes” as you can see in the diagram I made at the top of this post.

How the term 'cloud' was invented

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Back in the 1990s, you could look smart my talking about the “Information Superhighway” (the Internet). In the early 2000s, the catch-phase of the day was “eCommerce” (buying crap on the Internet), and in the late 2000s non-technical managers would often toot about “Web 2.0” (an imaginary Internet that basically is the current Internet, but with more content).

Around 2010, non-technical managers, CIOs, and executives were struggling to find a new BS phrase to call the Internet that will make them look good in meetings. Well, that name has now been chosen, and it is the most retarded named used so far: the cloud.

How to properly pronounce Galaga

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been getting some heat over the past short while when I talk about my Galaga arcade, because there are 2 different camps when it comes to pronouncing the word Galaga. You can either emphasize the first syllable:

    GAL-a-ga

Or you can emphasize the second syllable:

    ga-LAG-a

I’ve always emphasized the second syllable (ga-LAG-a). However, the Avengers movie came out this year, and Robert Downey Jr. (who plays Iron Man in the movie) pronounced the game as GAL-a-ga when it showed up in the movie. So now, most people say something along the lines of “oh you mean GAL-a-ga” when I mention my ga-LAG-a machine. Annoying as hell to say the least…..

Guide to buying old arcade games

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

One of the coolest things to have in your home is a real video arcade game - not only for the nostalgia, but for the massive amount of fun that you, your friends, and your family will have when playing it. A video arcade game can round out a rec room, basement, or garage more than anything else ;-)

I started seriously getting into arcade games last year - I’ve done tons of research prior to actually buying arcade machines for my own home, and I’ve learned a heck of a lot along the way (thank you Internet!). I hope to share some of what I’ve learned in this post to benefit those who are thinking of buying a home video arcade game (or additional ones).

How our video games evolved over time

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I read an article on Ars Technica yesterday that didn’t sit too well with me: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/04/what-ever-happened-to-the-american-arcade/

Now don’t get me wrong…..I thought it was a great article, and they did a good job of portraying the difference between Japanese and North American culture when it comes to video arcades (which are still very popular in Japan but have pretty much disappeared in North America outside of the Chuck E. Cheese franchise).

QNX on a moon rover

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Back in September 2011, a group of McMaster business and engineering students started a project aimed to build a moon rover that would be run by the QNX operating system on a BlackBerry PlayBook - a Canadian initiative with Canadian technologies (QNX is 100% Canadian). Here is a link to the original article on CrackBerry.com from the beginning of the project: https://crackberry.com/forums-new-group-aims-put-blackberry-playbook-powered-rover-moon

I reached out to them because of that article since I’ve had experience with QNX and PlayBook development.

SOPA and PIPA

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

With the massive SOPA/PIPA website content blackout on January 18th (including major sites such as Wikipedia), the general public suddenly became far more educated on digital freedom issues.

The music and movie industry has amassed a fortune in the last 50 years selling music and movies before the dawn of the Internet. Back then, if you wanted music, you had to buy it on some physical medium such as a cassette tape or CD. Similarly, if you wanted to see a movie, you went to the movie theatre and then bought the VHS tape or DVD 6 months later.

Using Google like a pro

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Google is an extremely powerful set of tools (not just the search engine - Google apps as well!). However, few people really know how to find what they want using it. So here are a few tips you can use when using Google:

Putting quotes around a set of words tells Google to search for those words specifically as a single item - for example, to search only for cell phone radiation you could enter:

2011 in review

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I started my new job of Dean of Technology in January. Basically twice the work but the same money. Most of the time it’s a thankless job (because you have to deal with complaints and bitching from everyone), but there is the odd job perk such as flex time and attending social events and conferences. I think the best part is that my official job description has a section that requires that I possess Strong communications skills (fluent in English & Klingon), as well as excellent interpersonal, analytical, strategic, conflict resolution, management, and organizational skills (this is what happens when non-geek HR people ask you for feedback in creating your job description).

Perspective on RIM

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve always considered myself someone who has a super-natural ability to put things in perspective and explain them to others. After all, I’ve taught adults for 13 years, and EVERYTHING must be put into perspective when you teach adults ;-)

However, it is difficult to put a large situation in perspective when you are too close to the action (for lack of a better phrase). And I’ve been close to RIM for many years both physically (I live 15 minutes from the RIM headquarters in Canada) and mentally (I’ve dealt with them for years on the academic program front and used their products).

RIM is dead. Long live RIM.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The worst possible news for RIM right now is a delay in bringing some sort of modern product to market. In other words, delaying their QNX “killer” smartphone. But that is exactly what they announced last night - QNX phones won’t be ready until the end of 2012.

The problem is that they are already behind their competitors with little chance at turning the company around and maintaining a big presence in the smartphone market. This delay will pretty much cripple their chances of catching up with iPhone and Android.

Hard drives are dead

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

That may seem like a bold statement. And it is. However, Apple said the same thing about the floppy in 1997 when they introduced the iMac without it, and it slowly disappeared afterwards. ZDnet said the same thing about optical media (CDs/DVDs) in 2009 when USB flash drives reached critical mass - and of course optical media is slowly disappearing as we speak (the DVD drive in my Alienware laptop died shortly after I got it, but I never called Dell to replace it because I never use it anyways).

How I threw my back out playing Angry Birds

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I know this sounds extremely lame, but on Wednesday August 3rd, I threw my back out playing Angry Birds. And each time I’ve told people that, they’ve either burst out laughing, gave me the quizzical look (as if I’m joking), or simply state something along the lines of “if it were to happen, it would have happened to you.”

I definitely plan on telling people that I threw my back out playing Angry Birds at future events (it is a great ice breaker for sure!). And if they ask about details, I’ll refer them to this post……

The transputer

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

So what the heck is a transputer? Well, it is a RISC CPU design from a company in England called INMOS that was designed so that it could interface with other CPUs of the same type in a massively parallel fashion (like a mini supercomputer).

The reason it was made was because CISC CPU designs of the 1980s were getting too bulky and people thought that it would be hard to advance them (of course they were wrong - never doubt engineers!).

The rise and fall of DEC

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Firstly, the information that I’m presenting here is taken from various sources, including people I knew who worked for DEC, my own experiences, and the book DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC by Edgar H. Schein.

Quick background info:

DEC was the first knowledge-based company - a company who valued the knowledge of its employees over anything else, and used it to drive change and sell products.

All about DEC

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was born in the late 1950s when it was lucrative to make computers that cost a ton of money. And DEC was good - they would make computers that would perform much better and cost significantly less than the IBM equivalent (IBM mainframes back then were expensive behemoths).

The DEC PDP (Programmed Data Processor) line of minicomputers were so good and inexpensive, you’d be hard pressed to NOT find one in your local university. The PDP-7 was the first computer to run the infamous UNIX operating system. The PDP-10 was the first computer to introduce time sharing and TCP/IP implementation for the Internet (there were plenty of PDP-10 nodes on the early Internet, or ARPANET). The PDP-11 was the most influential and mass-produced minicomputer of its time that led to the creation of the C programming language as well as the designs of CP/M, DOS, and the Motorola 68000 architecture.

Atari 2600 deep dive

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

One thing that many people don’t realize is that the foundation of the video game industry, including terminology and techniques were solidified in the 1970s and early 1980s during the home video game movement! And the home gaming console that led to the most development in this area was the least technologically advanced one for its time: The 1977 Atari Video Computer System (VCS), later known as the Atari 2600.

The Gospel of Tux v1.0

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Every generation has a mythology. Every millennium has a doomsday cult. Every legend gets the distortion knob wound up until the speaker melts. Archeologists at the University of Helsinki today uncovered what could be the earliest known writings from the Cult of Tux, a fanatical religious sect that flourished during the early Silicon Age, just before the dawn of the third millennium AD.

In the beginning Turing created the Machine. And the Machine was crufty and bodacious, existing in theory only. And von Neumann looked upon the Machine, and saw that it was crufty. He divided the Machine into two Abstractions, the Data and the Code, and yet the two were one Architecture. This is a great Mystery, and the beginning of wisdom. And von Neumann spoke unto the Architecture, and blessed it, saying, “Go forth and replicate, freely exchanging data and code, and bring forth all manner of devices unto the earth.” And it was so, and it was cool. The Architecture prospered and was implemented in hardware and software. And it brought forth many Systems unto the earth.

BCE, CE, and the new IE

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I Google everything. What I find annoying is this: When you Google something that existed before the Internet and has no ongoing importance today (such as local landmarks that have since disappeared), there is literally NOTHING on the Internet about it.

For example, Leisure Lodge was a very large and glorious hall on the outskirts of Preston (now a part of Cambridge, Ontario) that was THE place to go from the 1950s to 1970s - they had their own big band group (the John Kostigian orchestra), and in the 1970s, they were the biggest disco joint around (they even hosted the Miss Nude World Competition one year). It burned down in 1980 and the ruins of it still exist at the edge of the Kinsmen Stadium next to Hwy 401 between Cambridge and Kitchener, Ontario.

Funny Internet Shakespeare typo

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I’m currently finishing the 3rd edition of my Guide To Linux Certification for Cengage. In Chapter 7, I used the following text from Shakespeare in the section on the stream editor (sed):

    Two households, both alike in dignity,
    In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
    From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
    Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
    From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
    A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
    Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
    Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.
    The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
    And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
    Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,
    Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
    The which if you with patient ears attend,
    What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

I originally grabbed that passage from the Internet (copy-and-paste is easier than typing), but the technical editor caught a typo (Whole misadventured piteous overthrows should be Whose misadventured piteous overthrows). I verified it on the Internet and just thought it was one of those weird Olde English things, but the copyeditor verified it as a typo (she has an English degree) and also found out that it was a simple transcription typo (Whose –> Whole) that managed to spread quickly across the Internet because most people prefer to copy-and-paste Shakespeare rather than type it out manually! Hilarious.

eBook pilot

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Here is my class with their new Kindle DXs. Notice the absence of heavy textbooks on the desks!

UPDATE:

Unfortunately, while it was cool to carry around all of our textbooks in PDF format on our Kindle DXs, the pilot ultimately led to us not adopting eBooks exclusively. Simply put, many of our students just preferred the ease of printed books. eBooks may become the norm in the future, but probably only when everyone carries a laptop with them, and can access a second monitor for it in the classroom.

NeXTSTEP is cool

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

When Steve Jobs left Apple in the 1980s, he started a new venture that produced NeXT UNIX computers that ran a custom UNIX system called NeXTSTEP on Motorola 68000-series computers. The first Web browser was made my Tim Berners-Lee on one of these NeXT computers!

When I was an undergrad student at the University of Waterloo, we had a few NeXT computers (literally two of them I believe) and a bunch of HP PA-RISC 712s running NeXTSTEP for object-oriented software development (it was more common to see Sun or SGI UNIX systems at the university back them).They were cool - and I remember using the HP PA-RISC 712s to do development in university thinking something along the lines of “this is nice, but not as nice as SGI IRIX (Silicon Graphics UNIX).”

Jaron Lanier on technology

Sun, 23 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Jaron Lanier is a technologist who is known for coining the term “virtual reality” in the 1980s (he started VPL Research - the first virtual reality company).

I saw him speak during on the of the debates at the Quantum to Cosmos festival last year (a Pi Institute event in Waterloo, Ontario), and quickly Googled him (since he was the only person during the debate who actually said anything worth listening to). A few months ago, his first book (You are not a gadget) was released, and I just finished reading it twice.

BlackBerry 950 teardown

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

As I was moving the stuff in my desk from the old campus to the new campus yesterday, I found an old BlackBerry 950……..so I took it apart and found an Intel FW88386VXSD CPU, which is an embedded version of the famous Intel 80386 CPU (big black chip on the right side of the picture above).

I remember having an 80386 PC that weighed a ton back in 1990, so this is like carrying that PC around in your pocket. I wonder if it could run Windows 3.1 or Linux (remember that Linus Torvalds first developed Linux on an 80386).

Copyright in Canada

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Thirty years ago, people bought music on a record….a tangible thing like any other item for sale in a store. Now, people can download information (text, music, movies, etc.) from the Internet effortlessly. This copying of information has threatened the business models of many large and powerful companies such as music labels and movie producers. And these companies have reacted to their shrinking profits by abusing copyright and suing their customers rather than changing their business models.

The Amazon Kindle ROCKS!

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Recently, the Amazon Kindle 2 (International Edition) arrived in Canada (the last country to get it :-), and I recently picked one up. Since its original introduction in November 2007, I have watched reviews of it fly around the Internet and on blogs such as GeekBrief.tv.

Although the reviews were generally positive, I really couldn’t visualize myself replacing my book collection with a Kindle for the simple reason that books have their own distinctive “experience” (and smell :-).

The famous Pentium FDIV bug

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

One of my favourite CPUs from my CPU collection is the original Pentium 60MHz shown here. The reason that this model (SX835 with Gold top) is one of my favourites in not because it looks good, but rather that it was one of the Pentium models that had the famous FDIV bug.

The FDIV bug was a problem with the floating point unit in early Pentium CPUs that resulted in reduced precision of division operations (FDIV is the x86 assembly language instruction for floating point division).

Anatomy of an AS/400

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

During my spring cleaning, I ended up getting rid of my AS/400 model 9404-D10 from 1991.

Since the power supply is dead in it, I decided to disassemble and photograph the inside of this amazing machine. AS/400s are well known for their legendary uptimes, and were the “jewel” of IBM in the late 1980s to 1990s. In 1993, when IBM was close to splitting up their divisions into smaller companies, Bill Gates said that “the only part of IBM that Microsoft would be interested in was the AS/400 division.” At the time, many of Microsoft’s internal systems ran on the AS/400 platform.

The death of SGI

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Today is definitely a sad day - SGI announced their bankruptcy.

SGI was once a great company - in the 1990s, they made the best computers ever, such as the Indigo2, O2, and Octane. The cases and designs looked awesome, and they had amazingly fast 64-bit MIPS RISC CPUs and stellar video cards! Plus, they made an excellent graphical UNIX operating system: IRIX.

Although I am a Mac OS X UNIX user now, IRIX will always be my favourite UNIX. The comic shown here from UserFriendly.org captures it perfectly.

10 years of UserFriendly.org

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t blogged for a while.

This is partly because my daughter and I have been enjoying some major events in Toronto (Ontario Science Centre, ROM, shopping, more shopping, etc.), and not much has happened in the Geek world aside from the new Apple hardware updates and Firefox achieving 100% market share in Antarctica.

However, the main reason I haven’t blogged is that I have been engrossed with reading the 10th Anniversary book from UserFriendly.org (over 1000 pages).

Happy Epoch Day!

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Today is a special day in the I-don’t-have-a-life-and-can-prove-it-mathematically geek world…..for today, the epoch will be 1234567890 at precisely 6:31pm (and 30 seconds) Eastern time.

UNIX (including Mac OS X) and Linux systems use an internal time called the epoch - it is the number of seconds since January 1st, 1970 (the “birth” of UNIX). This is also why UNIX and Linux geeks weren’t too concerned that their OS was going to blow up at Y2K, since the time would simply be 946684800.

BlackBerry then and now

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

You know - most technologies change drastically over time. As a result, I got my hands on an old BlackBerry 950 model from 1998 (the 850/950 series were the original BlackBerry smartphones on the 800/900 MHz Mobitex networks, respectively).

The problem is this: It really hasn’t changed that much. Aside from the color and graphics, the BlackBerry 950 running BlackBerry Device Software 2.5 had pretty much the same applications and functionality as the BlackBerry 8830 running BlackBerry Device Software 4.5!

I created the Internet

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Complete with blinking light! It’s amazing what you can make with a soldering iron and the spare electrical parts you have in your basement.

If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about, just watch the BBC sitcom “The IT Crowd” Series 3 Episode 4.

CrackBerry Book

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, I am definitely a CrackBerry user.

As a result, when I saw a new book on Amazon called CrackBerry: True Tales of BlackBerry Use and Abuse, I simply had to order it and pay the inflated shipping and US exchange rate to have it delivered to Canada. And I am glad I did - it was a hilarious read, and I must admit that I can relate well to the crazy stories within.

War Games shell scripting fun

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

While my daughter and I sat across from each other in Starbucks drinking coffee and PIN messaging each other in Leetspeak using our BlackBerries (yes, I realize how drastically nerdy this is), the thought occurred to us that a simple shell script could easily be used to simulate the War Operation Plan Response (WOPR) supercomputer from the movie War Games (1983).

Anyways, we analyzed the frame-by-frame output from the movie and recreated the output on the Sun Enterprise 450 in my classroom running Red Hat Linux.

How to please your IT department

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies and children’s art. We don’t have a life, and we find it deeply moving to catch a fleeting glimpse of yours.
Don’t write anything down. Ever. We can play back the error messages from here.
When an IT person says he’s coming right over, go for coffee. That way you won’t be there when we need your password. It’s nothing for us to remember 700 screen saver passwords.

How to do an out-of-office auto reply

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t posted for a while simply because I just got back from vacation today rejuvenated. In IT, you either take vacation or spend tons of $$ on therapy and alcohol. I prefer the vacation :-)

People still email me during my vacation, but I have an Outlook autoreply email configured to let them know that I won’t be replying anytime soon (it’s your basic “leave me alone because I am on vacation” email). Here is my Outlook autoreply email from this year:

Bill Gates steps down today

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Today is Bill Gates’ last day at the helm of the largest software company in history: Microsoft. Bill, thanks for creating and running a company that has transformed the industry like no other - I wish you the best!

Although I am not a huge fan of proprietary software today or some of the things that Microsoft has done (e.g. FUD) and is currently doing (e.g. Vista), I have always had a large amount of respect for Microsoft’s role in industry - in the early 1990’s, I really wanted to work for Microsoft like everyone else, and I was an early Windows advocate.

IBM hard drive from 1981

Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This picture is of an IBM Model 3380 Hard Drive from 1981. Because it looks like a nuclear device or jet engine, I was able to convince my neighbour that I was generating my own nuclear power from now on, as well as the people at the Chrysler convention that it was an electric engine for a transport truck (I was passing them when going to a high school tech presentation at Bingemans where I used this as a fun prop). My pranks know no bounds!

The Nostradamus of UNIX

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Every so often I re-read a book that I read years ago to remember what it is about. Mostly, I re-read sci-fi or notable works such as Neuromancer (William Gibson) or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) since those are the types of books that I kept over the years.

However, I kept a book from 1989 called Life with UNIX (Don Libes & Sandy Ressler) that I remember using as a good UNIX reference a long time ago. While browsing the Net, I happened across a recent review of it that said it was “a timeless book on everything UNIX – 90% of it still applies today.”

The UNIX way

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Back in the 1980s, someone started the UNIX-HATERS mailing list as a means of venting UNIX-related frustrations. In 1994, Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise, and Steven Strassmann collected these frustrations and published them in a book called “The UNIX-HATERS Handbook” with extra commentary aimed to portray one view: UNIX sucks. The book itself contains plenty of great information about different technologies such as shell scripting, UNIX commands, email and file systems – it’s too bad that they cast everything in a very negative light.

Are you a Mac or a PC?

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

If you are ultra-Mac, you prefer to use an aesthetic computer that “just works” - as a result, you are usually sexy, artistic and cool.

If you are ultra-PC, you prefer to use a clunky un-aesthetic computer that is difficult to use, crashes often, is a virus hell, yet is guaranteed to work with any piece of hardware with a software driver written by a 10-year-old boy in a barn in China - as a result, you are nerdy, cheap and non-cool.

Linuxtopia

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In the past several months (and year), it seems that Linux is really making its way into the desktop market (up until now, it has ruled the server market). Every time I pick up a magazine at Chapters or read Google news, there is some new Linux device or technology. Here are a few that have caught my eye in the past short while:

The rapid development of Compiz (formerly Beryl), which puts shame to all other desktop effects and is extremely easy to use and requires very few hardware resources to run.
The rapid adoption of Ubuntu Linux on the desktop market as a Windows replacement (I use it every day on my laptop, and it is a great OS).
Hardware manufacturers pre-installing Linux instead of Windows as an option on laptops and desktops (especially Dell and HP).
The addition of Linux PCs and mobile devices - e.g.:

Netscape RIP 1994-2008

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When I read my Google news today and found out that AOL is no longer going to develop and support Netscape as of February 2008, the first thing that came to mind was: What the heck? I thought Netscape was already dead!

I always equated Netscape with older systems such as Windows 9x and SCO Unixware 7.1.2 (the only web browser that ran on its crappy GUI). I haven’t heard anyone who has used the browser in years. Everyone I know uses IE, Firefox or Safari. After AOL bought Netscape, I thought they distributed Netscape for a while and then gave up…….I didn’t think it was still out there.

History of game consoles

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

It is now more than 30 years since the first real game console (the Atari 2600) was released in Canada. Below is a timeline of each major console, the CPU/GPU they used and any other neat stuff. Basically, you will notice two important trends:

The console manufacturers love to copy each other - up to the mid-1980s, they mostly had MOS 6502-based CPUs - in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they had Motorola 68000-based CPUs - in the mid-1990s to early 2000s they mostly had MIPS-based RISC CPUs - and today they all have PowerPC-based RISC CPUs and complex GPUs.

The end of 2007

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

It has truly been an exciting year, and I wish to take a few moments to reflect on some of the most important events of 2007 in geekdom:

Halo 3 being released (I love that game)
Microsoft pissing off millions with Vista
The death of SCO (may they rot in hell)
Apple releasing the iPhone and iPod touch (the next generation interface for everything)
The introduction of the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet running Linux (drool….)

The Amazon Kindle: Friend or foe?

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000

There has been a lot of hype this week about Kindle - Amazon’s eBook reader.

I have always regarded eBooks (also referred to as Digital Ink) as evil. They are almost always DRM (Digital Rights Management) protected so that you can’t share information with others and typically require an expensive eBook reader.

On the other side, the idea of storing my book collection on a nice small aesthetic digital device seems attractive to me as a technophile. However, the device would need to be as natural to use as a book and would need to allow non-DRM content as well.

Anniversary of the World Wide Web

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Do you remember the dawn of the Internet in the mid 1990s? Everyone was talking about the “Information Superhighway” (a cheesy term for the Internet back then) and how it would change everyone’s life. Then people starting talking about the World Wide Web (WWW) and email and facebook.

Still today, many people don’t know how to properly define the World Wide Web and the Internet. At dinner parties with non-geek friends, I like to bring this up by asking, “So, can anyone here tell me what the Internet and World Wide Web are?”. People start by blurting out things such as email and text messaging and doing taxes online, and usually someone argues that it is a social phenomenon or something, but eventually people start to realize that they really have no idea what the Internet and World Wide Web actually are. I can be a bastard sometimes, but it is fun.

Thank you, Apple

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I installed Macintosh OS X 10.5 Leopard on all my Macs today. When you upgrade an OS, you always expect to lose some system settings and have some applications that don’t like the new OS. As a result, I chose to install Leopard on my PowerBook G4 first. It has tons of software and I customized it to the max, so I naturally expected to spend a while tweaking it after the upgrade to get an idea of what I can expect when I upgrade my other computers.

Ontario Linux Fest

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, I teamed up with and old friend of mine (Scott Elliott) and went to the Ontario Linux Fest at the Toronto Congress Centre. For those who do not know Scott, he is a VMWare guru (you can join his Southwestern Ontario VMWare user’s group @ www.vmware.com), as well as a master in the 8th layer of the OSI Model (the political layer). Although he won’t admit it, he knows UNIX very well and is an advocate of the Open Source movement even though he works mainly with Windows.

More about Open Source Software and Linux

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

In light of the upcoming Ontario Linux Fest, I decided to use this blog entry to reflect on Open Source Software and Linux.

Free Software and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) were pioneered by the famous Richard Stallman. Free Software does not mean “at no monetary cost”……..it means that the source code is free to anyone who wants to use it (source code freedom). In the words of Stallman, think “free” as in “freedom”, not “free” as in “free beer”.

The wicked witch is dead

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I consider myself to be a very patient person (all things considered) - but one thing that causes me to lose my patience is when I hear of proprietary computer companies that spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) in order to keep their customers from considering other (and usually much better) technologies.

While Microsoft has been the main purveyor of FUD since the early 1990s, SCO used FUD in an attempt to downplay the Linux operating system.

Server closet Buddha shrine

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

For the past 2 years, I have had a Buddha Shrine in the server closet in my office. I carefully researched proper Buddha Shrine requirements and styles on Google before I chose the above arrangement (Buddha must be elevated and surrounded by objects that represent tokens of life).

Why did I do this? Simple. To speed up our current Internet access and reduce the number of times that we need to reboot/reset classroom routers (when caches fill up, etc.). Since I encourage instructors and TAs to reset their own router as necessary to maintain Internet access, I have made some easy-to-follow instructions and placed them on the wall of the server closet:

Richard Stallman talk at UW

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

On July 6th, Richard Stallman gave a talk at the University of Waterloo regarding copyright and its evils. Although slow at the beginning (perhaps because Richard was still finishing his Pepsi and introducing the features of copyright), it turned out to be a powerful and enlightening educational experience.

I decided not to write a blog about it until I was able to view it again on video after my vacation and make specific notes. You can download the whole presentation from the University of Waterloo Computer Science Club @ http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca in OGG format.

When Marketing chooses the cover

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I saw this book a short while ago at Chapters (book store chain in Canada). What caught my eye was the humour on the front cover!

This book is on how to secure your PC using Computer Associates Internet Security software (with a Windows Vista update!). However, the laptop that the lady on the cover is using is a MacBook!

Currently, there are no known viruses or spyware for Macs! But I definitely agree with the subliminal advertising on the cover of this book: Simple Computer Security……buy a Mac!

eMac family photo frame

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes, you just do things that bring out the geek within……well……today is one of those days. Guess what you can do with the front bezel of an Apple eMac? Make a family photo frame!

Simply find a piece of glass that is 14”x11” and place it on the inside of the bezel. Next, place your picture on the glass (preferably with a nice thick matting to add depth) and screw a 15”x12” piece of pressboard into the existing screw holes on the inside of the bezel and you will have a portrait that geeks will immediately notice when they enter your rec room. I think I will call it the iFrame.

Roughing it on vacation

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Yup - it’s vacation time again! And this next week I plan to do nothing but relax, get a tan, drink “Muskoka Dry Pale Ginger Ale” and read a few books that I haven’t had the time to open yet. And yes, my daughter is going to swim all week long - that is her in the water with the kids from the cottage next door.

Now you are probably wondering why I am blogging on my vacation……shouldn’t a vacation be devoid of TV/phones/Internet/computers? Well, in a way, I am abandoning technology for the whole week - I am writing this blog on a greyscale PowerBook 140 (1992), saving my work in ClarisWorks to a floppy, and transporting it to my current Macintosh when I return via an external USB floppy drive. How RETRO! Now that is what I call “roughing it”.

iPhone first impressions

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The iPhone went on sale in the US yesterday. And yes, for the past several months since its introduction, I wanted one badly…..but after hearing from those who have one, I am not so upset now that the iPhone is not available in Canada until later this year.

Basically, those who have one say that it “feels like a 1.0 device”, which it is. It uses the old EDGE service rather than new and fast 3G Mobile service in order to save battery power (Apple rationalizes that most will use the iPhone’s WiFi to browse the Internet instead). Plus, Flash and Java are not supported on the iPhone (too much processing/bandwidth?). And my biggest problem with the iPhone is that it only has 4 or 8 GB of storage (bad).

Microsoft Energize IT conference

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today, I attended the Microsoft Energize IT Conference at the Convention Centre in Toronto. Having been to many Microsoft conferences in the past, I was reluctant to attend since most of them were a biased propaganda show for sales people and managers.

Energize IT was a typical Microsoft conference: lots of money, free food and swank. When the keynote presentations started, it looked promising. The first few speakers emphasized the need for feedback from the audience such that Microsoft can adapt to the changing needs of their customers, as well as the need for a sense of “community” amongst us. And to make things even better, there were power bars at each table in the auditorium for laptop use as well as free wireless access (I brought my laptop and was able to check my emails during the boring parts of the presentation). From people’s facial expressions and body language, everyone seemed engaged.

Linux thin clients

Sat, 05 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Jon “maddog” Hall gave a talk about using Linux thin clients (e.g. the Linux Terminal Server Project) to provide Internet and application access to schools, third-world countries and organizations in general. He specifically noted that thin clients (like the HP Compaq t5125 which only uses 10 Watts of power compared to the 550 Watts used by most computers) could easily provide low-power, high-performance computing on a large scale.

Big fish

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today is a monumental day! Last month I mounted a 7 & 1/2 foot Pacific Sailfish caught in Puerto Vallarta Mexico in my rec room, but I needed to touch up the dorsal fin (the only part of the fish that is made of wood because it can’t be preserved). Well, I finally got around to putting the finishing touches on it tonight (the black dots)……..hooray! I think it looks great!

iThink therefore iMac

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The old expression “Mac users usually swear by their computers…..Windows users typically swear at their computers” got to me last week when my instructor computer’s Windows desktop and applications froze 3 times at the beginning of class. As a result, my Terminal Services connection (that I use to record daily quiz marks) was destroyed each time. So I brought an old iMac G3 with OS X Tiger into my classroom this week and put it on a switch box so that I can use it to record marks across Terminal Services (OS X doesn’t crash) while keeping my instructor computer free for classroom use. On the plus side, it also allows me to demonstrate the portability of the commands that I am teaching in my Linux Administration class next week and it looks good at the front of the room - I was never a big fan of the G3 iMacs when they first came out because they ran OS 9, but I must admit that they are sleek looking computers :)

Summer is here. Finally.

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

We just got back from vacation this week! No computers, no telephones, no IM, no text messages, no stress (just the occasional deer, moose or bear). Several years ago, I didn’t take any vacation at all during the year and promptly vowed never to do that again. In just one week of vacation, you can reduce all of the stress that you worked so hard to build up all year long. Remember that Canadian companies are famous worldwide for overworking their employees and not giving vacation time.

Computer evolution

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

OK - so Apple released the new Intel Macs this month and shocked everyone with their amazing speed improvements. But what I noticed is that Apple didn’t create a whole new look for them - essentially, the new line is in the same beautiful package as the iMac G5 and PowerBook. These designs must be very good if Apple is going to stick with them, and as a result, are key turning points in Mac evolution. Does evolutionary theory apply to computers. I think so. As I am sure the famous Richard Dawkins would point out, there must be some point where we could trace the current models of computers back to common motherboard architecture….

New Years security resolutions for 2006

Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

1. Don’t give personal information to obtain documents on the web

Many sites want you to register to get a free document or certain web page. What do you think they use your information for? Spam, spam and more spam. If you want to get these documents without putting in your personal information, simply put the URL for the site in http://bugmenot.com and get past the registration!

2. Protect against Viruses

Use Firefox - Many spyware/malware/viruses have code that targets Internet Explorer. Why not use Firefox instead? It’s the web browser that crackers (who make the spyware/malware/viruses) use to browse the web and it stops most pop-up windows, viruses and spyware.

Old Macs never die

Wed, 18 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000

We just came back from the Ontario Science Centre today. While my daughter checked out the educational exhibits (obviously learning important information), I was more impressed by the fact that some exhibits that haven’t changed for several years are still powered by Mac Classics! And to boot, the exhibits were still pretty damn good with those old computers.

1. Operating Systems

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

UNIX

UNIX is the grandfather of all modern operating systems, and today it still remains the most powerful and least known. But if you use an Apple computer running macOS, or an iPhone or iPad running iOS, you are using a UNIX operating system. And if you do online banking, somewhere tucked away in the bank is likely a series of UNIX systems running Oracle Solaris UNIX, HP-UX UNIX, or AIX UNIX. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) likely runs BSD UNIX networking equipment and servers, and you’ll even find QNX UNIX in most cars today as well as running the streetlights in your city.

1. What do I do?

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Besides drinking vast quantities of caffeine and spending most of my free time enjoying the outdoors, I have taught, developed, and managed various technology courses at triOS College in Ontario (Canada) since 1998 in both our college and corporate training divisions.

Back in 2011, I took on a different title of Dean of Technology to salvage our video game programs, and it turned into a more strategic role where I was able to help shape the development of our Information Technology (IT), developer, and video game programs. It also allowed me to build some exciting opportunities for our students, run over a dozen sponsored game jams and hackathons, communicate program information to others in the college, as well as meet with vendors, employers, internship hosts, and other colleges. My goal was to “walk the talk” in every facet of technology education, and I definitely achieved that early on.

2. My published books

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Perhaps one of my more famous achievements is the authoring of several textbooks for Course Technology, Cengage, Nelson, Thompson/Delmar and Wiley. I’ve listed their details in chronological order here (oldest to newest) with cover pictures below:

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification (ISBN: 0-619-13004-0) front rear
Guide to UNIX System Administration (ISBN: 0-619-13041-5) front rear
Linux+ In Depth (ISBN: 1-59200-062-2) front rear
MCSE Guide to Managing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network (ISBN: 0-619-12029-0) front rear dedication
Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification - 2nd Edition (ISBN: 0-619-21621-2) front rear
Linux+ 2005 In Depth (ISBN: 1-59200-728-7) front rear
Novell’s Guide to CompTIA’s Linux+ (Course 3060) (ISBN: 1-4188-3730-X) front rear
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Administration (Course 3037) (ISBN: 1-4188-3731-8) front rear
Advanced SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Administration (Course 3038) (ISBN: 1-4188-3732-6) front rear
Microsoft Windows Vista Guide (ISBN: 1-4188-3757-1) front rear dedication
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Administration (Course 3086) (ISBN: 1-4283-2227-2) front rear
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Security (Course 3075) (ISBN: 1-4283-2223-X) front rear
Microsoft Official Academic Course (MOAC): Exchange Server 2007 Exam 70-236 (ISBN: 978-0-470-38029-1) front rear
Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification - 3rd Edition (ISBN: 978-1-418-83721-1) front rear
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Administration (ISBN: 978-1-111-54003-6) front rear
Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification - International Edition (ISBN: 978-1-111-54153-8)
Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification - 4th Edition (ISBN: 978-1-305-10716-8) front
Linux+ and LPIC-1 Guide to Linux Certification - 5th Edition (ISBN: 978-1-337-56979-8) front
Hands-On Windows Server 2019 - 3rd Edition (ISBN: 978-0-357-43615-8) front dedication
Linux+ and LPIC-1 Guide to Linux Certification - 6th Edition (ISBN: 979-8-214-00080-0) front dedication
Hands-On Windows Server 2022 - 4th Edition (ISBN: 979-8-214-01160-8) front dedication
Linux+ and LPIC-1 Guide to Linux Certification - 7th Edition (ISBN: 979-8-214-40996-2) front dedication
Hands-On Windows Server 2025 - 5th Edition (ISBN: 979-8-214-95419-6) Available November 2026!

Moreover, I’ve worked as a technical editor for numerous Linux and software development titles for both Wiley and Pearson, as well as wrote 6 books for Research in Motion (RIM) on BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 & 5 (uncredited and consequently not listed here).

2. Retro Computers

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Apple

Apple Computer was founded by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976. Steve Wozniak provided the technical genius for computer creation, while Steve Jobs provided the expertise in marketing and design. Their first major commercially adopted product was the Apple II in 1977, which had a MOS 6502 CPU (also used in Commodore computers such as the Commodore 64) and shipped with BASIC and the DOS operating system (later versions). The Apple II was very well built and had tons of expansion ports. It inspired thousands of people to enter the computer world. Thousands of programs were made for it, and it made its way into nearly every industry in a short period of time. The famous spreadsheet, Visicalc, made the Apple II a great business tool, its ease of use made it extremely popular in the school system (every school I went to had them, even in the 1990s), and its BASIC interpreter and easy expandability made it famous with hackers, engineers and scientists (the first demonstration of public key cryptography was hacked together by a few mathematicians on an Apple II).

3. Arcade Games

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Growing up in the 80s was awesome! One of the best things about growing up in the 80s for me was that I developed a love of video games. I loved spending time at the arcade playing the classics like Tempest, Missile Command and Galaga. At home, we had an Atari 2600 and later a Nintendo NES. I loved it all.

In recent years, I purchased my absolute favourite arcade games of all time…..mainly because I’d rather play those games than most of the newer AAA titles that require a larger amount of available time. Since I have limited space, I had to make sure they were games I’d play a LOT of, and I’ve definitely kept true to that!

3. Personal Interests

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Parenting

I am a happily divorced proud father of one. I’ve pretty much raised my daughter since she was 5 years old on my own, and yes, I’ve made school lunches, threw kids parties, went to great places (Ontario Science Centre, ROM, SportsWorld, Storybook Gardens, Disney World and more!), spent vacations camping/cottaging, and watched far too many Land Before Time movies. The picture on the left is my daughter while we were vacationing at Disney World in Florida over a decade ago. Now that my daughter is grown up, I miss those years. But she recently became a parent herself, so in a few years I’ll likely be doing some of those things as a grandparent. After my daughter moved out of the house, my adorable dog Pepper and I went on many more amazing adventures until she passed away at the age of 13. I am incredibly grateful to have been a dad to both my daughter and Pepper.

4. Tech Flicks

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience (2012)

2001: Space Odyssey (1968)

8 Bit Generation: The Commodore Wars (2016)

Antitrust (2001)

Blade Runner (1982)

Bright (2017)

Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007)

Cloak and Dagger (1984)

Contact (1997)

Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Every Star Wars and Star Trek movie (from the 1970s+)

Fanboys (2008)

Freedom Downtime (2001)

Funspot: A Small Documentary on the World’s Largest Video Game Arcade (2016)

5. Tech T-Shirt Slogans

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t Anthropomorphize computers. They hate that.

The proper way to declare war in software development is var war;

I void warranties

I read your email

Linux isn’t magic. It’s sudo-science.

I have 99 problems, and they’re all subtle variations of the same password

The way you talk to the printer when it’s not printing is the real you

I’ve got a scary joke about math, but I’m 2² to say it

6. Tech Humour and Puns

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Future historians: They taught the AIs how to talk like corporate middle managers and thought this meant that AI was conscious, instead of realizing that corporate middle managers aren’t.

I’m stepping down from my position as an adult. It turns out this isn’t for me, but I appreciate the opportunity.

Software and cathedrals are much the same thing. First we build them, then we pray.

“I did 4 years in college without ChatGPT” is the new “I walked 10 km to school every day” line your parents bragged about

7. Three Unconventional Tips for Career Success

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

1. Don’t turn down an opportunity because it isn’t the job you want

Career progression is never a straight line, and good opportunities don’t actually have the words good opportunity written in bold letters on them – you never know where they will lead you.

For example, back around the year 2000 I was asked to teach a corporate Linux course on the weekends. I didn’t want to give up my weekends for a month, and quite frankly I thought it would be a boring waste of my abilities and time. But I did it anyways, and one of the amazing students in my class worked for Compaq and introduced me to SHARCnet.

City Trails

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

rare Charitable Research Reserve (Cambridge)

The rare Charitable Research Reserve is a community-based urban land trust. They maintain a series of amazing trails within the Blair/Galt area of Cambridge along the south side of the Grand River. The trails along the river are part of a gorgeous escarpment that contains exposed rock and fossils from the Silurian period. There are also trails across alvars and open fields with two Osprey towers. Further south, you’ll find the beautiful Maple Lane and Grand Allee Trails that contain massive hardwoods and plenty of deer. They comprised the first planned road in the region and the surrounding forest was home to the first settler (Dan Dodge).

Cyberpunk, Sci-Fi & General Fiction

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas J. Ryan: The Adolescence of P-1 (1977)

This is probably the best book I have ever read regarding our human desire for artificial intelligence (AI). It’s about a University of Waterloo student who creates an AI on IBM mainframes. Don’t let that bore you though - it’s a captivating read and has a great ending. I wouldn’t be surprised if this book influenced later movies such as War Games (1983), and books such as Neuromancer (1984). I especially liked how much of it took place at the University of Waterloo (my undergrad university and home for many years) including the infamous IBM 360/75 in the “red room” within the Math & Computer building (the largest computer in Canada at the time). I remember the red room well before they decommissioned it in 1999.

Destination Trails

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Rockwood Conservation Area

Rockwood has breathtaking scenery - pine and cedar forests surrounding rock cliffs and islands along the Eramosa River. And the trails allow you to see it all. The Cedar Ridge Outlook allows you to see all of Rockwood below. The plateau at the top of the caves is actually owned by the University of Waterloo, but you can hike up there and along the numerous trails to see the remnants of an old house and quarry.

Non-Fiction & Biographies

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Clifford Stoll: The Cuckoo’s Egg (1989)

Don’t let the year of this book fool you - it’s probably the best book on computing security. The epilogue is both timeless, and an amazing reflection on the purpose of computer security. Moreover, this book is a very enjoyable read. Cliff, like most of us computer/scientist types, writes with a quirky sense of humour, and isn’t afraid to relay his personal views within the book. For example, the quote below describes Cliff’s colleague Dave when he notices that the hacker used the –f option to the ps command on a Berkeley UNIX system (Berkeley UNIX doesn’t use the –f option, only AT&T UNIX does): “We’re watching someone who’s never used Berkeley Unix.” He sucked in his breath and whispered, “A heathen.”

This website contains zero AI-generated text

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Yup, that’s right – every single word, phrase, and typo (purposeful or not) has been carefully crafted by yours truly and reflects decades of continuous improvement in both English and thought expression.

Each blog post started with a real-life event or thought that sparked a passion to create something I wanted to share with others, and in a way that allowed me to better understand and appreciate it as well.

Trails in and around Algonquin Provincial Park

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Mizzy Lake Trail

This is the trail where you can see the most wildlife in Algonquin park. You’ll wind through 11km of lakes, marshes and forests. My daughter and I saw massive turtles, were followed by otters who mocked us, and even stood 2 feet away from a moose who crossed our path when she realized her foal was on the other side. The pic at the top of this page is of my daughter resting shortly after we found the remains of a grey jay (now officially called a Canada jay) that was likely eaten by a pine marten.

Video Game Books

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Martin Amis: Invasion of the Space Invaders (1982)

This is probably the most sought-after video game book of the 1980s by the uber-famous, world-renowned author Martin Amis (most copies sell for over $200 today). Martin Amis has a unique way of bringing you back to the video game world of 1978-1982 using verbal imagery and humour - after all, he was a video game addict at the time! Some of the high-resolution colour photos in the book (including the one above) say more than words ever could. The last half of the book is an in-depth look at some of the most common video games alongside Martin’s favourite game strategies that will land you a high score. And to top it all off, it has a wicked introduction by Steven Spielberg.