Ubuntu In The Workplace

Currently I am a PC Technician at a place called Pomeroy IT Solutions. My job for the most part consists of configuring and repairing computers for multiple companies in a timely fashion. However due to lack of work recently (Most likely due to the horrible economy) I have come to face my mortal enemy... Boredom! So what does a computer tech do when he's bored and has thousands of PCs at his disposal?... Well here's what I did.

Normally the PCs we configure run on Windows 2000... Boring!!!
So with my recently aquired Ubuntu CD that I brought with me today (I was actually going to give it to a co worker but he can wait) I installed ubuntu on this Lenovo (IBM) Thinkcentre.
Model number for those of you who care 9645-CC5
It has about 256 MB of ram with (some of you may want to sit down for this) a 1.6 GHz Celeron Processor.
To be honest I didn't think it would actually run given that these are pretty outdated by today's standards. But to my suprise, it did, and very smoothly might I add.

Even with the additional desktop effects such as Desktop Cube, Motion Blur, etc. It still is running like a beast!

Now for the funny part.
Normally when we put windows on this machine it doesn't have any of the drivers preinstalled, which means we have to take out or handy driver CD and load them all up (we avoid this by just ghosting the whole machine now) but with Ubuntu it picked up on all the hardware. ALL OF THE HARDWARE!!!!... WOW I can't even do that with Windows XP on my machine. Needless to say today's boredom experiment made me a very very happy Ubuntu camper.

P.S. I ended up giving my co-worker the CD after I was done with it. He can't wait to go home and try it out!

SSD is the new hard drive?

Okay so it's been out for a long time now but developers are just now getting around to making it "worth while". SSD is essentially a flash card. Just imagine the possibilities. Now instead of having your hard drive running, faulting out, and essentially sucking power your computer will be run off of a SSD. What is SSD you may ask? It stand for Solid State Drive. Developers like Toshiba are making SSDs that can hold up to 256 GB. That's about the size of a HDD that's installed on almost any computer you buy at circuit city. How freaking amazing. The great part about it is well these drives are basically amazing. Take for instance your typical jump drive. Have you ever noticed how durable those are? I ran mine through the wash once, let it dry out and it still worked. Wow. So in short this new technology could in turn replace the HDD and set a new standard to memory management. I'm pretty excited about it. The possibility for this technology to become apparent in laptops is basically a given. With read speeds at 120MBps and write speeds at 70MBps through a SATA connection. I think I need to go to the bathroom!

An Introduction For The Masses

It's about time I finally get around to implementing this idea. Allow me to introduce myself I am James Simmons a computer tech with ADD (not really but it's possible). Due to my nature I am big on going all in on anything new in the tech industry. Take for instance my computer (poor thing) I've redone my entire system about 200 times in the past year and every time I do it still works perfect. The truth is I love computers. I love learning new technology and I love coming up with ways to improve what is otherwise lack luster. Lets face it without improvement we would still be running DOS and working off old computers. This entire blog is dedicated to people who either love technology, or want to love technology. Because of my amazing skills as an ex sales associate everything I do is put into terms even a monkey could understand. Topics will change as does my train of though so if you get lost just shoot me an email and I'll try to get back on track. Oh yes and one more thing. No matter how far away you are, there is always a computer close by!

So with all that out of the way I will update you on my current adventure. Or should I say adventures!

Ubuntu Linux!
I've finally dove in head first to the amazing operating system that is Ubuntu Linux. Setup was fairly easy (as expected) and the support for my computer was second to none.

Reinventing the internet.
For obvious reasons I can't fully give you all the details just yet but put simply me and a group of coders are currently working on design for a project that would literally change the way people surf the web. Updates will be availiable as progress continues and we get our long awaited patent.