Work Area
SHAWN POWERS
Shawn Powers is the Associate Editor for Linux Journal. He’s also the Gadget Guy for LinuxJournal.com, and he has an
interesting collection of vintage Garfield coffee mugs. Don’t let his silly hairdo fool you, he’s a pretty ordinary guy and can be reached
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TO THE LOCAL DEPARTMENT STORE AND BUY A TABLE &IGURE SHOWS THE TABLE ) BOUGHT )T WAS AND ) HAVE NO IDEA HOW )M GOING TO FIT IT INTO THE CAR TO BRING HOME 9OU CANT SEE THE CHAIR IN THE PHOTO BUT ITS A FOLDING CHAIR ) hBORROWEDv FROM A CONFERENCE ROOM -ETAL FOLDING CHAIRS HURT YOUR REAR END AFTER A WHILE SO FOR A CUSHION )M SITTING ON A BAG OF DIRTY clothes. Yes, I travel in style, and I’m super classy.
4HE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM HAS A LITTLE NIGHTSTAND &IGURE WHICH WAS ODDLY PLACED NOWHERE NEAR THE BED 4HATS OKAY BECAUSE ) USED THE TABLE TO SET UP A COFFEE STATION 4HE ROOM ALSO DIDNT HAVE A COFFEE POT SO ) PICKED UP THIS SINGLE SERVE +EURIG COMPATIBLE COFFEE POT FOR
)TS TERRIBLE 3ERIOUSLY IF ) REVIEWED COFFEE POTS FOR A LIVING THIS WOULD BE MY EXAMPLE OF THE WORST COFFEE POT )VE EVER USED 3TILL ) CANT WORK IN A ROOM WITHOUT COFFEE SO FOR THE WEEK )LL JUST SUFFER "UT )M LEAVING THIS Figure 1. Yep, that’s a party-size bag of saltwater taffy—and about 50 empty wrappers.
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pot here; I don’t want it at home. (And yes, I don’t eat terribly healthy on the road. Ramen is about it. You can cook only so many things with a SUBPAR SINGLE SERVE COFFEE POT
Hardware
) WONT GO BACK OVER ALL THE STUFF IN MY .ETWORK 'O "AG BUT YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT IN THE !UGUST ISSUE IF YOURE REALLY INTERESTED
(HTTPWWWLINUXJOURNALCOMGOOGLESEARCH S -Y.ETWORK'O "AG).
"ASICALLY ) CARRY A ROUTER A 7I &I EXTENDER NETWORK CABLING AND EXTENSION Figure 2.
Coffee and ramen—the fancy creamers are for my wife.
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CORDS )VE BEEN IN A SITUATION WHERE ) TIED MY 7I &I EXTENDER INSIDE A GROCERY BAG WITH A LITHIUM ION BATTERY AND HAPPILY HAD 7I &I ACCESS IN A CABIN OUTSIDE OF RANGE ) WAS MY OWN SUPERHERO
/NCE THE GASPING STOPS YES THATS AN -AC"OOK !IR LAPTOP SHOWN IN &IGURE )TS THE BEST LAPTOP )VE EVER OWNED AND )M
WILLING TO TAKE THE SHAME FOR USING AN !PPLE PRODUCT &IRST IT HAS THE NICEST KEYBOARD )VE EVER USED ON A LAPTOP ) CANT SAY THE SAME FOR THE NEWER -AC"OOK KEYBOARD )TS TINY HAS '" OF 2!- AN I
PROCESSOR AND A BIG '" 33$ ) CAN RUN 6-WARE &USION AND HOST 5BUNTU -!4% AND IT RUNS BETTER THAN IT DOES NATIVELY ON ANY OTHER LAPTOP )VE OWNED 0LUS )D BE LYING IF ) SAID ) DIDNT USE -AC/3 AS WELL 3OMETIMES WHEN )M PRESENTING THE ONLY hPROJECTORv ACCESS IS AN !PPLE46 USING !IR0LAY 7ITH THE -AC/3 RUNNING ) CAN SHARE MY SCREEN AND DO ALL MY DEMOS INSIDE 6-WARE 0LUS THE ALUMINUM CHASSIS IS SO THIN ) PROBABLY COULD SWORD FIGHT NINJAS WITH IT SHOULD the need ever arise.
!PART FROM THE LAPTOP ) SOMETIMES HAVE TO PRINT HANDOUTS ) DO THIS WEEK SO ) HAVE A 53" LASER PRINTER ) TOTE ALONG ALSO SHOWN IN &IGURE
) KNOW THERE ARE TRULY PORTABLE PRINTERS BUT SINCE ) ALMOST ALWAYS drive, something a little bigger isn’t a problem, and it’s a whole lot CHEAPER 4HIS MODEL IS A "ROTHER (, ,$ AND IT PRINTS FAIRLY FAST )T ALSO HAS A DUPLEXER SO REALLY FOR LESS THAN )M NOT COMPLAINING
&OR MOBILE DATA WHEN 7I &I ISNT AVAILABLE ) USED TO CARRY A -I&I device everywhere I went. It was awesome. Since at that time I WORKED FOR A SCHOOL ) COULD LITERALLY GET unlimited ' DATA AND IT COST THE SCHOOL MONTH 4HAT UNLIMITED DEAL WAS AVAILABLE ONLY FOR schools, and thanks to people like me, it’s probably not available even FOR SCHOOLS ANYMORE .OWADAYS ) JUST TETHER TO ONE OF MY PHONES ) ALWAYS CARRY TWO -Y DAY JOB PROVIDES AN I0HONE S ON THE 6ERIZON NETWORK AND ) HAVE A PERSONAL -OTO % USING #RICKET 7IRELESS &IGURE
3INCE ) HAVE BOTH !44 AND 6ERIZON NETWORKS AT MY DISPOSAL ) ALMOST ALWAYS HAVE CONNECTIVITY )F ) DO MUCH MORE TRAVELING )LL INVEST IN ONE OF THOSE h+ARMA 'Ov DEVICES http://www.yourkarma.com), SO ) HAVE ACCESS TO THE 3PRINT NETWORK IN A PINCH 3O FAR ) HAVENT NEEDED IT BUT IF ) EVER DECIDE TO DO AN EXTENDED ROAD TRIP )LL probably have to do that.
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4HE ONLY OTHER THINGS ) CARRY WITH ME HARDWARE WISE ARE
POWER RELATED ) HAVE A V INVERTER FOR THE CAR THAT GIVES ME V
!# ON THE GO ) ALSO HAVE A BIG MAH LITHIUM ION BATTERY
) GOT IT FROM WOOTCOM ON SPECIAL CHARGED UP AND READY FOR DYING DEVICES -Y !NKER FIVE PORT 53" CHARGER &IGURE IS STILL THE CHARGER ) USE FOR MOBILE DEVICES AND WITH THAT COMBINATION )VE NEVER RUN SHORT ON JUICE ) KIND OF WANT TO GET A PORTABLE SOLAR PANEL SO ) CAN TOP OFF MY BATTERIES DURING SUNNY DAYS BUT ) DONT REALLY NEED THAT
I just want it!
Figure 3.
I’ve honestly never spoken on this phone. I don’t even know if the phone part works!
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Software
)VE TALKED ABOUT SOFTWARE BEFORE BUT THINGS CHANGE FROM TIME TO TIME SO MY MOST CURRENT BATCH OF hMUST HAVEv SOFTWARE INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING
Q "ITTORRENT3YNC THIS WORKS AMAZINGLY WELL ) HAVE IT INSTALLED ON ALL OF MY COMPUTERS AND LAPTOPS AND ALSO ON MY BIG FILE SERVER AT HOME -Y goal is to move all my documents to BittorrentSync.
Q Dropbox: I’m still a little chicken, and I haven’t moved all my Figure 4.
I reviewed this back in the September 2014 issue. It’s the Anker 40w
five-port charger, and it’s awesome.
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DOCUMENTS OVER TO "ITTORRENT3YNC 4HERES REALLY NO REASON ) HAVENT EXCEPT FOR THE OCCASIONAL TIME ) NEED TO SHARE A FILE WITH A PUBLIC link. BittorrentSync doesn’t do that yet (I don’t think it does anyway), AND )VE USED $ROPBOX FOR SO LONG ITS HARD TO SWITCH 0LUS ) HAVE APPROXIMATELY '" OF FREE $ROPBOX STORAGE THAT ) EARNED WITH A SLIGHTLY SHADY 'OOGLE !DWORDS CAMPAIGN SO ) FEEL LIKE ) SHOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MY ILL GOTTEN GAIN
Q "EAN YES "EAN THE /3 8 TEXT EDITOR ) USE "EAN TO WRITE ARTICLES FOR TWO MAIN REASONS &IRST IT HAS A RUNNING WORD COUNT ON THE BOTTOM OF THE WINDOW SO ) KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH )VE BLABBERED ) CANT FIND any decent text editor that does the same on Linux. All the ones I’ve TRIED GET ANNOYING AFTER A LITTLE WHILE 3ECOND WHEN ) TRY TO DO WORK on Linux, I get distracted. For some reason, two sentences into an ARTICLE ) FIND MYSELF 33(D INTO MULTIPLE SERVERS PLAYING WITH $OCKER CONTAINERS 7HEN )M USING THE NATIVE -AC/3 ) TEND TO GET MORE actual work done.
Q Crashplan: because backups aren’t just important, they’re vital. Did YOU NOTICE THAT IN LAST MONTHS ISSUE THERE WASNT AN /PEN 3OURCE
#LASSROOM COLUMN 4HATS BECAUSE ) HAD A SYSTEM CRASH AND MY WORK HADNT BEEN BACKED UP YET 4HE WORLD MIGHT NEVER KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF RUNNING A SYSLOG SERVER BECAUSE ) DONT THINK ) HAVE THE STRENGTH TO write my article over again.
Q &INAL #UT 0RO ) KNOW ) KNOW YOURE LOSING FAITH IN MY ,INUX PASSION
(ERES THE DEAL +RIS /CCHIPINTI)VE MENTIONED HIM OFTEN THROUGH THE YEARS AS HES A FELLOW READER AND FRIEND &IGURE SOMEHOW GETS HIS ,INUX VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE TO WORK AMAZINGLY WELL %ITHER ) EXPECT TOO