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computers

Welcome to my Computer section, here you will find some information that I have put together about Linux, and some other misc. information about computers. leadmedic.com

Computers and amateur radio used to together is also very neat, I have used SSTV, which is a mode of communications using still pictures. The pictures can take anywhere from 18 seconds to three minutes to send, with the longer times, of course, producing better quality. You don't even need any special equipment, just a program, like MMSSTV, a computer, and some speakers/microphone. I don't have a cable to connect my radio and computer, so I simply hold my microphone up to my computer speaker to transmit, and place the radio speaker next to my computers mic to receive. It is very simple, and has surprisingly good quality! There are also lots of other digital modes, like Packet, where you can actualy have a TCP/IP connection over the radio! And other modes like RTTY and PSK31 for plain text messaging. You can learn more about this on my Amateur Radio page.

PHP is a really neat "addition" to HTML, it is far more powerful, and lots of fun, I am using PHP to power my:

  • Guestbook
  • Blog (If I can get it fixed!)
  • Webmail
  • Administration Area (Password Protection)
  • Network Query tool
  • Polls

and I could go on and on, and not a single one would be possible without PHP! I am just learning PHP, but so far I have been really enjoying it, I was getting bored with HTML, and wanted to try something new, so I just tried a simple PHP counter, and that got me hooked! So, as soon as I learn some more about PHP, I will try to post it up here. PHP is server side, thus, unlike Javascript, it is compiled to the server and only the results, not the instructions are sent to the browser. With others like Javascript, the web server sends the instructions to the browser, and the browser runs it, PHP is more compatible, as the browser doesn't have to do anything! Its all on the server. PHP is also much more powerful, it can manipulate files, it can detect which browser/OS the visitor is using, and so much more! You can use PHP for randomization, I had once used it to display a random quote every time a user came to my page.

By far, my favorite operating system is Linux. You can download it for free, or you could probably find someone who has already burned it to a CD, and buy the CDs from them. If you are interested in Linux, I would go to www.mandrakelinux.com.That is, obviously, the home page of Mandrake Linux... that is the Linux Distro that I use, and I really enjoy it, it is very easy to use, even compared to Windows! You can do lots of very neat stuff with it, including copying CDs, ripping music CDs, send/receive e-mail, edit graphics, watch movies, browse the Internet, and even Instant Messaging using programs like GAIM!

I like Linux because it is clean, efficient, fun and easy to use, and very powerful. It is a superb networking machine, and it can even read and write Windows files! There are tons of neat games, and utilities that are made for Linux, that you can get FREE! And, one of the main benefits of it, is that it is VERY stable, on my system, Linux has only crashed once for me, Windows XP, well, you know how much that freezes up! And the one time that Linux did crash was my fault.

I am using Mandrake Linux 9.2, and Windows XP Pro. I only use windows because everybody knows that it has become a monopoly in the computer world. I confess, I am in Windows right now to right this. Why? Because I only have an Internet connection in Windows, I have to upload these files using the Internet, not to mention get a few e-mails out. I think that Linux is a better operating system then Windows in many areas, but I have already said that in the paragraph above.! Another thing that is neat about Linux is that it is virtually virus proof, you can still get them, but they can do very little damage, because to do any real damage to the system, it would need "Root" authorization. Root is the "Super User", it has unlimited access to the system, but to get that you will need it's password. And, since Linux is not used as wide spread, there are not as many people that make viruses for Linux in the first place. Linux is most widely used for servers, I would venture to say that over 60% of all the servers are using Linux/Unix, for the simple fact that they are more stable, thus fewer downtimes. Microsoft has even been accused of using Linux servers sometimes! Apache, which works on both Windows and Linux, is the most widely used server, in fact, that is what this site is hosted by!

Linux and Windows programs are not exactly compatible, however, using WINE, which is a Windows emulator, you can run certain Windows programs in Linux. Another difference is the file system, Windows used FAT16, then FAT32, and now with Windows XP it uses NTFS. Linux uses EXT3, it is a very nice file system, and it supports long file names as in Windows. Windows can not read or write any of the Linux file systems, but, Linux can read and write FAT16 / FAT32, and it can read NTFS. So I can access all of my Windows files from Linux, it is really handy sometimes. Like in my case, when Windows crashed and would not work at all, I booted into Linux and backed up all of my important data onto a CD so when I had to do a hard disk wipe, I did not loose any data, this has saved my skin quite a few times!

A really great registry tweaking program is X-Setup Pro, it is by far the best that I have ever tried. You can do all sorts of neat stuff with it, such as change the OEM manufacturer information that appears when you right click My Computer, and select Properties. You can also control what programs start with your computer, what text is displayed on the IE caption, and tons more! I highly recommend it to all power users and system administrators. It is free ware and available for download at, X-Setup.net.

I am currently using an eMachines D2266. It has a 2.2 GHz CPU, and a 40 GB hard drive. I used to have a very slow Internet connection, only about 26Kbps, so it was a real pain to upload all of my files and everything. I am so far out in the country, they didn't even have DSL out here! But, recently that changed.. and so we now have DSL! I am really enjoying it.. my HD is almost full! My download speed went from, on average, from 2.7KB a sec. with dial-up, to almost 70KB a sec with DSL.

If you would like to find out more about Linux, I would recommend going to one of the links that I have on my links page. One of them is Linux.org, and it is a non-profit organization that really like Linux! Another good Linux site is Linux.com. Either way, there are lots of great Linux/Unix sites out there, you just have to find all of them.

Recently I have been playing around a little with IRC.. its pretty cool, and I have just about got it all figured out.. I use the ChatZilla extension for Firefox as my client, and I found a really cool bot at winbot.co.uk.. its really neat to be able to trick people ;) lol.. IRC is cool, but I still prefer using AIM or something, with Trillian of course.

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