My wrist accident.

I'll explain why I haven't published much in the last few months. I fell around the first of April and hurt my wrist. I didn't go to the doctor until June because of my wife's health issues. I had my surgery on my wrist on July 15 2011, It was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was in a cast for 6 weeks. the cast went from my shoulder my fingers. The cast came off on Sept. 1'st. I was put on in a removable wrist brace the same day. I found out a couple of week ago that I have nerve damage in my wrist. That was not the news I wanted to here! I'm waiting on the doctor give me a call to see what can be done about it.

Google Apps Certification Web Sites

Here a a few links to help you get your Google Apps Certification.

- Google Apps Learning Center

- Google Apps Certification Program

- Google Apps for Education Training Programs

- Google Testing Center

My Favorite FreeBSD Console Apps and Utilities

This is a listing of my favorite console application and utilities.

In the FreeBSD OS:
-- tcsh shell

In the FreeBSD Ports:
-- databases/sqlite3
-- deskutils/taskwarrior
-- deskutils/tnote
-- devel/rinfo
-- devel/rvi
-- editors/vim
-- mail/alpine
-- misc/mc
-- net/mtr
-- net/unison-nox11
-- ports-mgmt/bpkg
-- ports-mgmt/portmaster
-- security/rkhunter
-- security/sudo
-- security/sudosh3
-- shells/ksh93
-- sysutils/bsdadminscripts
-- sysutils/cmdwatch
-- sysutils/ncdu
-- sysutils/tmux

Ports management in FreeBSD

After installing FreeBSD, I always install bpkg and portmaster for my ports management. Bpkg is da bomb, you can do all types of queries on installed/not-installed ports. My favorite is "bpkg -p $1 | egrep '^[a-z]'". I have added it as a function called "sp" to my .tshrc file. With the output I can just copy and paste to a portmaster line, now that's super easy. Be sure to check out all the options of bpkg.

My FreeBSD History

Here is a little background on my FreeBSD Life. In December of 1994 I downloaded FreeBSD 2.0 and it has been history since then. I have used FreeBSD at home off-and-on for over 11 years on my server and off-and-on over 5 years on my workstation. As a server OS, in my opinion, FreeBSD cant be beat! Almost every OS has or is using the BSD IP stack for networking. That says a lot! The tightly integrated build system for system upgrades is better than any other OS I have used. The ports system is in a class by itself, very easy to install/update/upgrade/deinstall any port installed on your system. For my work personal server I use FreeBSD Current (which is now 8.2).

Here is a quote form another web site. I believe the same!

"A hearty thanks to the core team and everyone who has contributed to FreeBSD. I truly believe you can't find a better UNIX-like O/S for PC's, no matter how much you pay."

Some old and odd UNIX work-a-likes you can download.

Versions of UNIX for Odd Systems:

Dave Braun at Intel wrote UZI (a unix v7 ish system for Z80 processors, and public domain) - one of the gnu project mistakes was not building off this but using Mach
http://www.dougbraun.com/uzi.html

Steve Hosgood at UW Swansea wrote OMU - a 6809 and later 68000 based platform with a unixlike api
http://tallyho.bc.nu/~steve/

Jawaid Bazyar of EGO systems wrote GNO/ME a unix like Multitasking Environment for the APPLE IIgs 65816 computers.
http://www.gno.org

commodore/64 - Daniel Dallmann, lunix
http://lng.sourceforge.net/

msx - Adriano C. R. da Cunha, uzix
http://uzix.sourceforge.net/

My Computer History

Here is a little background on my Computer Life. In 1975, I think, a neighbor and his son got me interested in Ham Radio. From there on electronics has been a hobby of mine. The neighbor was a subscriber to Popular Electronics also. In 1975 Popular Electronics published it's now famous article on the MITS Altair 8800. We decided to build it. Man, it was AWESOME at that time, just look at the blinking lights!! I think thats why the movie WarGames has always been one of my favorite movies. It used the Imsai 8080, a direct descendent of the Altair.

In 1979 I was given a Z/80 based S-100 system with two 8" floppies, a terminal, and CP/M. The condition was to help do some programming for a company, man I didn't know what I was getting into. Byte magazine and Microcomputing magazine were real big back then. Good hardware projects and theory, thats where I learned about about computing and UNIX!

Sometime in early 1981 I saw Star Raiders on a Big Screen TV and I was hooked. I saved up and bought an Atari 800, 410 Tape Driver, joysticks and Star Raiders! I later upgraded to an 810 disk drive and a printer. Sometime in 1983 a salesman at a local Radio-Shack was using OS/9 on a Tandy Color Computer 2. I knew what UNIX was, I worked with a NCR Tower UNIX box at work, and the thought of having a UNIX-Like system at home intrigued me. So, I plunged in and bought a COCO2, a disk drive, and OS/9 Level 1. I also did some programming for a few company's that ran OS/9 on a SWTPC S/09 systems during this time also.

In 1986 I upgraded my Tandy COCO 2 to a Tandy COCO 3 running OS/9 Level 2, man it was awesome! I also connected my Atari 800 my COCO 3 as a remote terminal! In 1988 someone gave me an 80286 system and I upgrade it to 512k ram, 2 DS/DD disk drives, and a 10 meg hard disk and of course it ran MS/DOS.

One day at a Bookstore I happened across the book ""Operating Systems: Design and Implementation" by Andy Tannenbaum. I finally had the code to study and understand a UNIX like system. I broke down and ordered the software and started to understand the why and hows of system programming. I ran Minix on my 80286 system from floppy, because back then it didn't have hard drive support. I did a lot of experimentation on it and used my Tandy COCO 3 as a remote terminal.

Sometime in the fall of 1988, I bought a used Amiga 500, disk drive, and Color Monitor. WOW, I thought I was in paradise. I enjoyed this system very much. I really liked the OS! This was a fantastic graphics and sound machine. The guy who designed the Atari 800 graphics chip set, Jay Miner, designed the custom chip set for the Amiga. In the fall of 1992 I bought a used Amiga 3000 system. I had a great time with my Amiga's. I also used MINIX for a while, I even used it on my Amiga 500 with 2 disk drives. I even started my first home network with an 80386/FreeBSD Box and my 3000 serial slip connection. I enjoyed my Amiga's and I am looking for a used 500 or 3000, if any one reads this! Around the summer of 1999 I sold everything and began my home X86 UNIX network.
UPDATE #1: Thanks to a friend, on June 3'rd 2002 I acquired an Amiga 3000 again!
UPDATE #2: My Amiga 3000 died a horrible death on Feb. 20'TH 2011!

My BSD days started in Feb of 1993. I was given a copy of 386BSD version ? from a friend. After fooling with it I downloaded a copy of 386BSD and installed it on an extra PC. I was hooked! In December of 1994 I downloaded NetBSD 1.0, it was a lot better than 386BSD. In February of 1995 I downloaded FreeBSD 1.1, it was even better than NetBSD. At my job during 1994/1996, I admin'ed a BSDI server for the company's web site and also a HP/9000 running HPUX. My Linux days started around January, 1996. Due to the storm created by Linux, I decided to give Debian Linux a try. I guess I've used just about done all the disto's. Debian, RedHat, Slackware, and numerous others. I support AIX, Solaris, RedHat, and Ubuntu at my current job. Outside of my job, I've supported FreeBSD to the extent that I can, including beta-testing new releases, being a proof reader for BSDMag, and answering questions. I have also helped install several FreeBSD, Debian, and Ubuntu systems for other interested users and company's. I have had some form of UNIX running at home for over 25 Years!

For my full UNIX history see my resume(available on request).