Sojourn of the Mind

I decided to move the whole site to the Technology Secure Site

http://www.technologysecure.com

I will shut down this blog in some time, or redirect everything to this site in time.

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The funambol outlook plug-in is a way to synchronize the Outlook system with my.funambol.com.  Outlook as a mail client is horrible but as an address book it contains a lot of options that are helpful in keeping the addresses in check. I use it as a storage repository for addresses, notes from my PDA, and even as a Calendar.

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Tags: cross platform, install, microsoft, Microsoft Windows, phone, Synchronization, Vista
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After some searching and looking at a few sites that I came up with a solution for my synchronization problem.

The solution is pretty simple and comes in the form of an online service called funambol. Funambol is a company that offers synchronization for carriers and corporate environments. They also have an open source product available that lets anyone setup their own funambol server.

Another option is the currently free service that funambol hosts. This service is available at the URL: my.funambol.com . Once an account is setup these will be options available to download the appropriate client for the phone device. On the site there are clients available for the BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Java, iPod, and Outlook. More clients are available at funambol forge, pretty much all the systems are covered here.

In the following posts I will try to describe how to setup certain functionality for synchronization between various systems.

Tags: cross platform, iPhone, Java, Microsoft Windows, mobile, phone, Synchronization, Windows Mobile
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With one of my laptops being Vista I tried to sync my phone, a Sprint Mogul to the Vista laptop.  This is a Microsoft Mobile 6.1 phone from Sprint and I always had it synchronized to my former Windows xp laptop.

Unfortunately this is severely broken with the Vista operating system. I have tried all that is humanly possible but with very little success. This was a good 3 hour lesson in frustration without there being any possibility of success.

This left me looking for another way to manage my daily routines. Since I use Mozilla Thunderbird as my mail client and Google as my calendar only my address book needs replacement.

This also made my resolve to look for another phone platform. The choices are Android and the iPhone. iPhone is a bit of a problem since I have no desire to leave Sprint. But that is a totally different project that I will undertake.

Tags: Android, apple, error, iPhone, microsoft, mobile, phone, Synchronization, Vista, Windows Mobile
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Just a year ago the only way to connect a SATA drive was only through an external enclosure. This was an expensive proposition especially for people live me who have a ton of hard drives.  A few months ago the manufacturers started coming up with new devices that are just docks for 3.5 or 2.5 SATA drives. These devices have both a USB and some of them eSATA interface.

An example of of such a device is the following Startech.com device which I own and like. These devices are nothing more then a dock for the hard drives bat do not need fans, cases, etc. It is also easy to switch hard drives when needed, all you have to do is stop the device in windows or unmount the device in Unix and remove it from the dock.

This gives the ability to swap the drives on the go.

Another thing is that if the computer has an eSATA input or a pci express card, then the SATA drives can operate at the highest efficiencies.

If you desire a way to use all those SATA drives then in my opinion this is the best alternative.

Tags: hard drive, Hardware, Linux, Mac, Microsoft Windows, sata
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It usually hapens and you need to install Windows for some reason or another. For me it is to VPN back in to the office and to be able to do something on an Internet Exploder only internal system. VmWare to the rescue!

For those that do not know VmWare is a company that makes quite a few products, some are free and some are paid. It is a good system and allows you to do various things with Virtualization. There are some nice changes in the 6.5.X linux version which is inclusion of a network configurator which used to be a royal pain in the …caugh…

In either case how do you get it installed. With Gentoo it is actually quite easy because it is in the repository. Here is what was done with 6.5.3.185404 on 2.6.29-r5 kernel. If you have a later kernel it should be the same.

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Tags: 64 bit, alsa, Gentoo, install, oss, Virtualization, VmWare, vmware workstation
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Today there has been an update to The Brain software. The beta software adds a lot of useful features that can directly translate to your productivity. You can read more about the features in the release notes which can be found here.

Some of the features that I like are as follows:

• Ability to import Word outlines.
• New way to copy pictures in to your notes gives me the ability to use the software for research.
• Better navigation and new view types.
• Expandability to the calendar.
• Keyboard commands can now be used and assigned to most of the menu items.
• Improved tags. Tags is the one feature that adds a whole dimension to The Brain software.
• And many, many more.

Take a look but please backup your brains as once opened you can not go back.

Tags: brain, cross platform, Java, update
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It looks like in the 64 bit installation the developers forgot to include some SATA (can not say all because I do not have all controllers) controllers on the system. This causes the SATA drives to be recognized as IDE drives (hda) instead of Sata (SCSI) based drives (sda).

This is only a minor annoyance but if you have a known sata controller and during the install you  exhibit this behavior just save yourself an extra reboot and inside the fstab file put in /dev/sdax (where x is the drive number), instead of /dev/hdax as per the instructions.

Tags: 64 bit, controller, Gentoo, install, Linux, sata
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If you are doing an update on Pam you might run in to an error after Pam is updated. This error showed its ugly head when I updated to Pam Version 1.0.4 (under 64 bit). The error exhibits when a group or an Id needs to be automatically (or manually) added to the system with

groupadd fails @ Pam: Authentication failed error

Or something similar. The problem exists because PAM does not pull in Pambase as part of its install. Bug ID  259954 has been filed for this. The short term solution is to manually emerge Pambase and then continue with the emerge.

Tags: 64 bit, emerge, error, Gentoo, Linux, pam, pambase
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4.2 KDE has been the standard as part of a few KDE based Linux distributions. But if you would like to install it as part of  Gentoo you have to take a few steps to get it installed. The full documentation exists at http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/kde/kde4-guide.xml#doc_chap2. There are a few highlights that I would like to mention here.

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Tags: 4.2, Gentoo, kde, kde 4.2, Linux
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When building a Gentoo (A Linux Distribution) system during the install there is a portion that tells you to configure the correct cflags for your computer. This is the time that usually beginners through up their arms and say “I quit”.  That is because there is no reference associated as to what the flags are.

The reference though is available on the web. Gentoo Wiki keeps a repository of all the safe flags for different processors.

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Tags: 64 bit, cflags, Gentoo, Linux, safe
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In the past I have played with various operating systems on my work laptop. I have once again settled on Gentoo and started the conversion process. I decided to go with a 64 Bit System. Since when I looked at it last time 64 bit had some problems because a number of vendors did not release 64 bit versions of commercial software. Currently there are plenty of 64 bit commercial packages such as Flash, Java, etc. Plus the 32 bit compatibility layer helps as well.
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Tags: 64 bit, Gentoo, laptop, Linux, toshiba
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Note: This information has moved to our Technology Only site located at the new site:  www.technologysecure.com

Almost a year ago on my old block I reviewed an open sourced  software package from an Australian company Avente Pty Ltd. This software which is released under the Common Development and Distribution Licensethe perfect companion for implementing the Getting Things Done system without having to use on-line Software.

Thinking Rock now in version 2.2.1 follows the GTD system to a tee, making the transition from reading the book to implementing  the system hassle free. With the introduction of reporting and text export this software can get you to implement the system and keep it around with you on the road.

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Tags: cross platform, David Allen, getting things done, Java, Linux, Mac, management, microsoft, Microsoft Windows, mobile, software, time
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Note: This Category has moved to my new Technology Only Site – www.technologysecure.com

A software comes around once in a while that wen originally viewed is looked at as nothing more then a toy, but when fully used and utilized after some time becomes the best software ever.

The Brain Personal (http://www.thebrain.com) is just that kind of software. I have been using it for at least 6 years now and have gone through the whole evolution of the software. While looking like a fancy toy this software lets you create links and thoughts for the way you think and work. No it is not a gimmick if you actually take the time to learn the software that is exactly what it does (A little more on that later).

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Tags: apple, brain, Gentoo, Linux, Mac, microsoft, Microsoft Windows, software
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