Using Electronic Devices Brought from Another Country

Submitted by jbellendir on Sat, 05/04/2013 - 20:55

If you are an international worker, expat, or frequent traveler like me, you will no doubt at some point be bringing your electronic devices with you. I thought I would write a quick write up on things you should be aware of when bringing devices from one country to another. It seems this is one of those things that is misunderstood by a majority of people. It's actually quite simple to understand and you can easily get your devices to work in pretty much any country you are visiting with little to no cost.

The common misunderstanding is that you need a step-up or step-down transformer to use your devices. I can't believe how many people spend upwards of 50-100 dollars to buy a transformer to use with their electronic devices which is absolutely unnecessary. Read more »

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Social Bookmarking - www.diigo.com

Submitted by jbellendir on Tue, 02/19/2013 - 15:15

Well I just had to share this great online bookmarking tool called diigo.com. I had been a long time user of delicious.com until it was sold by Yahoo in 2011 and has gone downhill ever since. I then migrated all my bookmarks to Google Bookmarks but again have been dissatisfied with the service. 

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Where it all started...the IBM 5150 PC

Submitted by jbellendir on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 18:24

I have to start by thanking my mom for getting me into computers. It was back when I was 9 years old and my mother brought home this thing called a PC from work. I guess they were upgrading all of their machines and gave some of the machines away to their senior level staff. This so called PC was the IBM 5150. It ran on a floopy disk drive (a 5.25 size floopy disk) and it was one of the first personal computers that you would find in American homes at the time.

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My Top Picks for Infant/Baby iPad Apps

Submitted by jbellendir on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 17:07

The iPad has been and continues to be a truly useful consumption device. Sure, most users use it to simply play games and watch movies/TV shows, but it can do so much more. It's a great educational device. Seeing that I have recently become a father, I have been researching some good apps for my son. I'm not sure if I want to get him hooked on electronics right away, as they can be extremely addicting, but they can also be an amazing learning tool. Who am I to keep him away from computers and electronics, I have been playing around with them since I was 9 years old when my mother gave me her work computer.

I will quickly list some of my favorite apps that I have tested out and recommend spending money on. I will update this posting later with photos and my reviews: Read more »

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The Room - an iPad Game Review

Submitted by jbellendir on Sun, 01/06/2013 - 17:27

Wow! Where shall I begin? I have to say that this game is hands down the best game I have ever played on my iPad and it has seriously raised the bar for game developers on the iOS platform. The Room is the first game that Fireproof Games, the game company behind this masterpiece, has created for the iOS platform, and we are all impressed! I have to say, they executed their first game project flawlessly. Just about everything in this game is perfect, from the in-game graphics which were beautifully done, to the engaging nature of the game and just the right level of difficulty. Difficult enough to keep you challenged and engaged for hours on end but not too difficult to frustrate the user to the point where they put down the game to never return.

Getting a job in Japan - Japanese speaking ability...while not a requirement, has its advantages

Submitted by jbellendir on Sun, 01/06/2013 - 04:28

The Typical Industries in Tokyo Catering to Non-Native Japanese Speakers

Okay, well a common question I get when I meet people currently living in Japan as well as traveling through Japan is "do I need to speak Japanese to get a job in Japan?" To answer this question, it really depends on what exactly you mean by a job. Are you looking for something fun that will provide you with a salary and some freedom, or are you looking for something more, such as a career, something that will provide you with a nice salary and potential growth and career advancement?

Sun Solaris 10 - Creating File Systems

Submitted by jbellendir on Sun, 01/06/2013 - 04:25

This guide shows you how to add a new hard drive to your Sun Solaris system. First add your hard drive physically in your server and then start it up. After your system has finished loading, go ahead and login to the system.

At the terminal type the following three commands:

# drvconfig
This takes your devices and applies ownership and permission changes to them.
# disks
This will create entries in your /dev/ directory for hard disks attached to your system
# format
This will launch the disk partitioning and maintenance utility and you should be able to see your new drive that you just installed.

After you run the format tool, you should see a list of the installed hard drives and their names. You should have some output that looks like this:

Sun Solaris 10 - Understanding Sun Solaris 10’s New Service Management Facility

Submitted by jbellendir on Sun, 01/06/2013 - 04:24

INTRODUCTION

Sun Solaris 10 is VERY different from previous versions of the operating system. It makes use of its new Service Management Facility. This software runs all processes and helps to control them and their dependencies as well as whether or not they need to be started when the server starts.

The main two commands you need to remember are svcadm and svcs

SVCS
This is used to display what processes and software are in online, offline, and maintenance mode. This can be helpful if you are trying to troubleshoot something and you are noticing things not working quite right. For example, if you are installing apache for the first time and your web server is not displaying. A quick check to find apache in maintenance mode would reveal you have some problem with your configuration.

To display all currently enabled and disabled services type either:
# svcs
or
# svcs -a

Sun Solaris 10 - How to setup a SAMP Server + VSFTP + phpmyadmin (Solaris Apache2 Mysql5 Php5)

Submitted by jbellendir on Sun, 01/06/2013 - 04:24

INTRODUCTION

This tutorial assumes you have some basic knowledge of how to use Unix and/or Linux and you have already installed and setup your Sun Solaris server. If you have not, please check my other tutorials on setting up a Sun Solaris server and come back to this tutorial. I will be right here waiting for you!

Okay let’s get started, and as always we are assuming you have installed and have pkg-get working with blastwave set as your mirror site.

MYSQL

Let’s take a look at the available packages to install first.

# pkg-get –a | grep mysql

This should output a good list of packages. I am going to install mysql 5 for this tutorial.

# pkg-get install mysql5

This should install several packages that mysql depends on. So let this run for a while, it might take a while depending on your internet connection. Go ahead and select “y” to all questions.

Sun Solaris 10 - Installation Guide to Sun Solaris 10

Submitted by jbellendir on Sun, 01/06/2013 - 04:22

The Install Process
I will be very detailed on the install process and explain each aspect as if you are new to unix. Please feel free to skim through this section if you have previously installed Unix or Linux.
You will need to first go to Sun’s website and download the 5 Sun Solaris 10 x86 CDs or the Sun Solaris x86 DVD. For this tutorial we will be installing the x86 version of Sun Solaris 10. After you have downloaded these CDs or DVDs, burn a copy of them so that  you can install them on your machine. Insert in the install disc and boot up your PC.
I will put screenshots when I feel they are necessary, otherwise I will just indicate which option to select. Feel free to select a different option that fits to your needs. For example, I will advise to select English as my default language, however you might want to have your system installed in a different language, please go ahead and select that option.

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