Category: Personal

People take the longest possible paths, digress to numerous dead ends, and make all kinds of mistakes. Then historians come along and write summaries of this messy, nonlinear process and make it appear like a simple, straight line.

Dean Kamen

Reading: Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia & Palace Intrigue

Written by a Las Vegas journalist, this fairly recent Hughes book is really a collection of essays or articles on various subjects mostly related to Hughes’ Las Vegas era. The pricing of the Kindle edition is more appropriate given degree of content. One nice gem, the author also reviews other lesser know Hughes books in the back.

Schumacher, Geoff. Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia & Palace Intrigue.

Configuring a Static IP in Ubuntu Linux

Unless someone lets me in on an easier process, here are the command line steps to configure a static IP address in Ubuntu Linux (in my case specifically for the BitNami Alfresco appliance):

 sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

For us GUI geeks, pull up a vi refresher if you’re a little rusty. Replace the default line:

iface eth0 inet dhcp

With the following lines (and the proper IP):

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.10
netmask 255.255.255.0

 Save and exit. Reboot.

Near Field Communication (NFC): What is it and why should you care?

Near Field Communication (NFC): What is it and why should you care?

So not only will you be able to make payments from your phone – throwing your wallet out the window and creating extra space in your pockets for your hands – the same device will also contain your ID, railcard and all those frustratingly addictive membership and loyalty cards that you can never find when you actually need them.