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Microsoft Genuine Advantage seems more of a disadvantage to me!
It seems like every time I go to install windows updates, office updates or download from Microsoft, my computer wants to download and install the Microsoft genuine advantage active x control. It upset me enough the first time, but now it is annoying. It is partly because of these annoyances that I hardly use windows anymore.
In Debian I can just say apt-get dist-upgrade from a terminal and thats it. No annoyances!

I realize that free software has an advantage in this respect. No agreements to click on to install software, no
license codes, no "you paid money for this so let us watch what you are doing". It almost seems backwards. If I pay for something, I should be able to use it without restriction and have fewer annoyances, but order to confirm that I did indeed buy it, I am subjected to the annoyance of confirming I own the software. There has to be a better way!

Currently the free software feels much more like ownership than purchased software, and since it is open source, I guess it is more like ownership.

Can I get an Amen!

This is awesome! Manging data should have always been this simple.

http://www.drobo.com/

After reading user feedback and a lot of reviews, I think I will wait for version 2.0. This would be awesome if it was an NAS and had higher throughput. Hopefully 2.0 has external sata2, fire-wire or both.

But check out the demo video, storage really should be this simple!

Use the cck_taxonomy module

The CCK Taxonomy module provides a cck widget for selecting taxonomy terms and assigning them to a cck field.

findings

1. The field updates appropriately when the term is updated.
2. The field does not provide a taxonomy link (it could be made to do so)
3. The selection list properly displays sub categories - like normal taxonomy item list
4. Searching on the taxonomy field works as expected.

If you set your cck content type in the vocabulary then 2 vocabulary form items will be displayed, 1 by taxonomy and one by cck. Simply assign the vocabulary to a dummy node type to omit this behavior.
Later you can change the dummy node to a category description node, or anything else for that matter to allow taxonomy links in your cck node to provide standard taxonomy behavior (pull up an rss enabled list of content tagged with that term.

Taxonomy categories (vocabularies/terms) are much easier to edit for category list then cck nodes because you can see the full list. The only way to edit categories when using the CCK node reference technique is to goto edit content, filter the content type, make a mental snapshot, goto create content and add the new content (in this case more of a term). This method does have the advantage of providing nodes for each category, but often this is not needed.

I have tried most Linux Backup utilities, not all mind you but most of them. In the end I just created a simple perl script that generates and runs a single tar command. dar is a good alternative to tar since it allows splitting compressed files, but for a while dar was incompatible with the version of Ubuntu I was running so I decided tar was a better choice.

Some of the advantages to this simple backup solution.

Comcast recently started blocking skypeout calls and other VOIP services. Of course when I call they deny it, but after monitoring my network and several hours of trouble shooting, the only thing left is comcast. I am running both skype and windows on my laptop, and skypeout works fine in either from the local starbucks. Once I get back on good ole comcast however my skypeout calls cut off after 7 seconds. Skype in calls still work fine. I geuss I will be leaving comcast in the very near future. Pitty, because their service has been pretty good and their network is fast.

Some good did come out of all this, while trouble shooting my network I discovered etherape which is a killer network monitor app for linux.

Go here to download the compatability pack

download from microsoft

These are great!
http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/2007/03/novell_launches.html

I think the second one is the funniest. To get it, you have to understand that Linux lets you choose between many window managers. So, in Linux you can choose the look and feel of your desktop. You can also unload one window manager and load another without rebooting.

With Mac and Windows you don't have any options, you just get what you are given. Sure both Windows and Mac have highly configurable windows managers, but so does Linux. KDE is much more configurable than either, throw in Beryl (A 3d glx rendering layer) and there is no comparison!

So in short, I can install new window managers whenever I want in Linux. For windows, it is Vista for the next 6 years or so.

Personally I love KDE, but admit that all the bells and whistles take some getting used to. If you are a Windows user you will feel much more at home in kde than gnome. The default KDE desktop looks very much like Windows with the taskbar on the bottom, a start menu on the left of the taskbar and the clock in the right of the taskbar, but don't be misled KDE is not Windows. Before getting into to many details, here are the features of KDE that make it my desktop of choice. 

This module creates a new group for each member that joins your site.
Drupal 4.7