Dan Olsen’s Weblog

I got a new iPod Nano from work. I was wondering how well a small screen would do for videos but I have been pleased. I have not had any videos that I’ve been disappointed with the screen size. Of course bigger is better but then again, so is getting free iPod.

Phil Windley posted an entry on his blog titled “Voting Machine Troubles in Utah County” which I was instantly interested in since I live in Utah county. Supposedly the voting machines being used across Utah county just didn’t work. The last I heard they are still not sure what the problem was. I went over to vote shortly before noon and the machines were up and working by then.
Since I have an interest in technology I was interested in experiencing these new machines. Personally I like the machines over the paper ballots. I realize that there are security concerns about the new machines but I believe that this is to be expected. There are growing pains whenever you introduce a new way of doing something. I am now interested in hearing the stories that pop up and complaints of losing candidates that surface about the voting machines.

While I was at the middle school where I was assigned, there were quite a few elderly people. Those are the people I felt sorry for. Some of them were so lost and almost intimidated by the new machines. Some of the poll workers had to calm down some of the elderly that were literally scared of the machines. This is another one of those things that will eventually become commonplace for elections.

I think using voting machines are the right move but anyone who expected a problem free switch to the machines are just crazy. Just look at the paper ballots, hanging chads were a problem which in the future will have thrown off election results more then the electronic machines do (if not already).

Technorati Tags: Voting

We got a new Apple XServe for our lab this past week. I have been working on setting it up and just the other day I was trying to get client computers in the lab to connect to the server. I told one of the computers in the lab to connect and we lost all access to OpenDirectory.

I have gone in and looked at the service from the command line and it says the service is running. However, it won’t let me start it or stop it. I get a INVALID_COMMAND error when trying to start the service or stop the service.

Another problem we’ve had since we got the server is extremely slow SSH access. All the other machines we have on the network don’t have this problem. So, if anyone has had similar problems, please leave a comment for me.

Technorati Tags: Apple, XServe

Apple feeds Tiger to iMac line | CNET News.com:

Looks like the iMac got another upgrade.

Technorati Tags: mac

Well, I finally got my Photo iPod yesterday and I am loving it. I charged up the battery and began putting music and photos on it. I also downloaded Phil Windley’s podcasts and listened to one this morning.

My wife doesn’t quite understand why I’m so excited about my new iPod. However, she does like the fact that she can borrow it and run a slide show of our kids on it. I hooked it up to the television this morning and played the slide show to test out the TV hook up feature. My one year old son also likes to look at the pictures. He’ll try to take it because he wants to look at the pictures. He’s already figure out how to view the pictures on our digital camera.

I now plan to look into some of the podcasts that are posted around the web. I always get bored on the walk to and from school and my wife thinks I look like a nerd when I am walking and reading. Maybe now she will think I’m a geek instead. If any one has any good podcasts they have listened to, leave me a comment and let me know. I need something to get my brain going in the morning while I am walking in these cold temperatures here in Utah.

How about the new Mini Mac by Apple! I would love to get my hands on one of those! I found that there is a new site freeminimacs.com. I have signed up so if any one else is interested just follow my link. I am assuming this site is as legitimate as the freephotoipods.com I posted about earlier. I know a couple of people that have received their free Photo iPod from the site. I’m still trying to get enough people to go and sign up.

Free Mini Mac: http://www.FreeMiniMacs.com/?r=14106410

Free Photo iPod: http://www.freephotoiPods.com/?r=12981335

Between my job and classes, I have found that I enjoy working with servers and web applications. For my job in the BYU Enterprise Computing Lab I set up our server which was the first server that I ever set up. Setting up the server was a wonderful learning experience. I am also in a class where we are setting up our own servers and building a web application. I love the freedom I have when I have complete control of the server. I now feel like I have my hands tied behind my back when it comes to my web site. I would like to be able to have more freedom on the server where my site is hosted.

I am one of those people that like to poke around and play around with things to learn more about them. By not having a server of my own I can’t learn everything I would like to learn. I had thought about setting up a server from home where I would not have to pay someone else to host my site. I talked with Phil Windley and asked him some questions about a server from home. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be as easy as I had hoped.

The first problem is the extra cost of getting a static IP address from my service provider. I found that if providers find out you want to host a server, they want to charge you like a business. That is money I don’t have.

One solution is to get a dedicated server from a provider which would allow me to have my own machine to have control over. The cheapest dedicated server I have found is $59/month. If I wasn’t a college student it would be more likely that I could afford a dedicated server.

I guess my problem is I want to play with expensive toys when I don’t have the money to play with them. It’s like when I was a kid and wanted a Power Wheels car of my own but all I could do is play on my friends on rare occasions.

My plan in the mean time is to maybe set up a small server in my apartment and play with it and try things on it locally. Doing this would be better than nothing. However, I like to be able to pull up my work anywhere I may be. So until some future time, it will just be a dream unless I can find something for under $10/month which I highly doubt at this time.

Yesterday I got a new Apple PowerBook G4 at work. Since 1998 I have used Windows or Linux after a lifetime of using a Mac. This is the first time I have really used Mac OS X and at first I was skeptical. After using it for the past two days I have been impressed with the new OS Apple has developed. I felt at home with the Unix command line which is where I started my excursion back into the Mac OS world.

Although I have been quite pleased so far, there are a couple of things that I am having a hard time adjusting to. First, the [apple] key, I keep wanting to use the [ctrl] key for keyboard shortcuts and it throws me off. Second, I can’t close an application by just clicking on the X in the upper left corner of the window. Instead I have to use the keyboard shortcut or the menu option to quit an application. Having to quit an application seems to be an unneeded function. Maybe there is a reason behind it that I don’t know about. Lastly, I miss my task bar. I like having the task bar at the bottom of the screen where I can choose which windows I want to bring up.

Of course I’m sure the above-mentioned “annoyances” will soon become second nature to me and then they won’t be much of a problem. I do think there is a nice replacement to the task bar for selecting windows. I discovered Exposé and turned it on. Now I can click my 5th mouse button and I can see all my open windows and choose which window I want to look at.

Like I said, I didn’t expect a Mac to be as good as I have found it to be. I am pleased with my new work computer and I think I just may be able to live with it!

Setting up a Linux server wasn’t as easy as I expected it to be. I recently started a new job as a research assistant for Dr. Phil Windley at Brigham Young University. My first assignment was to set up our new Dell PowerEdge server with Fedora Core 2. This is the first time I have ever set up a server. I expected to have it up and running in a couple of days.

After just over a week of poking, prodding, installing, uninstalling and installing again I finally got the server up and running. It was a miracle. I am currently putting together a page that describes the steps I took to get the server running. The page can be found here. I had Googled for articles on ways to install all the packages I needed but still ran into trouble. I figured it couldn’t hurt ot have another reference out there to help those who need that kind of help just as I did. Next time I will know what I am doing.