Accessing your computer remotely is critical now-a-days. When I’m at work I find myself needing files, documents, and other things from my home computer. When I was running Windows XP I used logmein.com to remotely access my computer. The reason logmein worked so well was because it used port 80; most other ports are blocked at work, so other programs wouldn’t work. Since my home computer is now Ubuntu Feisty Fawn I have to try a different route.

Fortunately, Ubuntu comes with a built-in VNC support. It’s easy to implement:

System -> Preferences -> Remote Desktop

Under sharing select:

• Allow other users to view your desktop
• Allow other users to control your desktop

Under security select:

• Require users to enter this password:
• Password: PICK A DIFFICULT PASSWORD

This is not the most secure method of having remote desktop on your linux box, but this is the easiest way. Since ubuntu is utilizing VNC it will use ports 5900 – 590x depending on how you have it setup. 5900 will be the port you want.

To access my linux box remotely from an XP box I use a free web-based VNC viewer from s-code.com, which I believe is open sourced.  It is much like logmein.com, except logmein.com also supports java, but not linux.

http://www.s-code.com/products/viewerx/webvnc.aspx

This lovely little site will allow you to access your VNC at home on whatever port via http port 80. Firewalls control what ports you can access, but as long as a port is open you can get to anything.

Probably the best class I have ever talken, as in I learned a whole bunch of stuff from, was a UNIX class. We used the book Guide to UNIX using Linux and installed Fedora Core 4 to learn all the amazing things about Linux/UNIX or *NIX. This book has a lot of bad reviews on Amazon, but for getting your feet wet with Linux/UNIX this is a really great book. The book was required by the department and we had to read the book on our own time. In class the teacher, typical UNIX guy, would bring lots of print-out from other books. Truly, I can say this was one of my most educational experiences in school and has stayed with me till this day. I’m running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04 at home and couldn’t be happier!

Overall in the class I developed a much greater appreciation for the command line, GUI is nice, but the command line is more powerful. So here is my list of helpful command line… commands…

CAL

Displays a simple calendar of the current month of the screen. Great for a quick lookup for dates. I usually go into the clock on the desktop, which requires a few clicks. Simply type, cal
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I have been very busy the last week or so. It doesn’t seem stop. It flew bye so quick I barely have time to think. So I will do some thinking now……..

The only thing that I have had a chance to do lately is listen to some podcasts, or should I say netcasts, the more PC term.

Podcasting, a portmanteau of Apple’s “iPod” and “broadcasting”, is a method of publishing files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically by subscription, usually at no cost. It first became popular in late 2004, used largely for audio files.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

I have really been digging TWiT (This Week in Technology) it is a lot of fun listening to, these guys/gals talk about technology brilliantly. Also I really love Diggnation with Kevin Rose and Alex..? I used to watch diggnation last year, but recently have started watching it again. I believe both of these shows really work because they are what they are. They are regular geeks that are talking about their passions. Whatever you do in life, make sure it is your passion, or else you won’t enjoy it and will be miserable and cranky. boo.
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To ponder, to dream, to find yourself in the darkness of life. Meditation can free your mind and bring sanity to your life. That’s why I should do more. Just to take a break from the redundancies of life. Sometimes I think I just do too much. I need a break.

Meditation usually refers to a state in which the body is consciously relaxed and the mind is allowed to become calm and focused. Several major religions include ritual meditation; however, meditation itself need not be a religious or spiritual activity. Most of the more popular systems of meditation are of Eastern origin, though there exists also various forms of Christian, Jewish and Muslim meditation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation

I digress, I think normal people, without religion, can incorporate meditation into their lives in various forms:

• The hand on the chin stare into space Meditation
• The monk style legs crossed fingers pinched Mediation
• The stare out the window blankly Mediation
• The sleep (POWER NAP) Mediation
• The television blank stare Mediation (maybe not)

One should start slow and build meditation into the vigors of everyday life. I somehow thought this might be a bit more interesting. But it will be my thought of the day.

There’s an excellent article, as always, on coding horror, about the Desktop Application versus the Web Application.

From coding horror:

I tested it myself, and she’s right. It takes about 9 seconds to launch Streets and Trips 2007 on my (very fast) desktop PC, compared to about 3 seconds to load maps.google.com in the browser. It’s a mixed-up, topsy-turvy world we live in when web mapping applications are now faster and more convenient to use than their desktop equivalents. But it’s a fact.

I think this is definitely one piece of the pie of why Web Applications are starting to take over the Desktop; watch out it will continue. I think the biggest reason why I use a web application over a desktop application is portability. I’m on a number of different systems during the day and it would be unrealistic to have to install the same application on every system that I use.

Another piece of the pie would be VIDEO. Yes, VIDEO, in the form bandwidth it is increasing more and more everyday. Okay, not everyday, but rapidly, more and more people are switching to broadband. People are getting DSL, cable and these big companies are putting money into access speeds, which is making these web application feasible to implement to mass amounts of people.

Probably the third piece would be that browsers like Firefox, IE(yuck), safari, Opera, etc etc have advanced to a point where they can rival the Desktop. Also being connected to the Internet, people can get the most up-to-date information for applications like a Mapping Service or what not.

I don’t see the Desktop Application going away, but it will definitely incorporate aspects of what Web Applications are doing today.

And what about [http://gears.google.com] Google Gears

Sorry this post didn’t have much to do with Video, but I had this stuck in my head

Video killed the video star Desktop Application…