I'd like to keep this in Techforge for now, consider it an experiment. My goal here is to share some of the information I've gleaned over the years. I also plan to share Tech news, tech experiments I'm working on, and the occasional tale of interest that comes about from people coming to me for help.
Currently I'm taking the plunge into using Linux almost full time. It's not possible for me to use it completely, gaming on Linux is still in it's infancy, and I need to use AutoCAD for work (there are no acceptable Linux alternatives that don't involve me spending thousands on licenses, and WINE doesn't handle AutoCAD well). You're probably wondering, "Why Linux?" The best answer I can come up with is what I see as an emerging trend. Over the last several years, Android adoption has increased several fold, tablets and smartphones are displacing traditional desktops and laptops. Despite any innovations they make, I feel that Microsoft and Apple are fighting a losing fight since they lock down their devices. As more of the economy moves towards information services, open devices become preferable to closed devices. Anyways. I managed to get Linux Mint 14 installed last night, and spent til 4 in the morning trying to get VMWare to work so I could run Windows in a virtual machine. Ultimately it ended up being a combination of my fault and VMWare's fault, mine because I didn't have it set to auto update, theirs because VMWare Workstation 9 causes kernel panics in Linux Kernel 3.5+. Finally, after figuring all that out, and struggling for close to an hour just to get VMWare to shut down completely, I managed to get it updated, and Windows installed. Unfortunately, graphics performance through a VM isn't so great, so while AutoCAD is usable, there is no hardware acceleration. So that brings me to a new idea, VMWare ESXi. My plan is to setup VMWare ESXi on my desktop, with two virtual machines using Hardware Assisted Virtualization, one will use Linux and one will use Windows. Because I have two graphics cards, I can hopefully use the lower end integrated one in Linux, since graphics support in Linux isn't that great, and then use my high end NVidia card in Windows to run games and AutoCAD using VMWare's DirectPath (it gives the virtual machine direct control over a resource). I've heard that this can work, but it'll be a crapshoot. Will update later when I know.
Apparently, VMWare's DirectPath requires Intel's VT-d technology, which pretty much every 3rd generation i5 and i7 processor has...except mine. Why my version, the i5-3570K, which cost more than the other i5-3570 versions, doesn't have VT-d and those do, is fucking beyond me. This is going to either require a change in strategy...or a new processor, and I'd rather not have to do the latter.
I keep making attempts to get into Linux, and I would really like to do some Android development. I think both will be increasingly important going forward.
If you're not willing to make the plunge entirely, I recommend using Linux in a Virtual Machine at the very least.
I've set up one computer to dual boot to windows and ubuntu. The reason I did it was because I needed a linux app to try to hack something on my phone. I also have a couple of linux netbooks. It seems fine, but I rarely use any of these, as my tablet is by far the most useful for much of what I do. And yes, I realize that it also has linux buried on the inside, but it seems far less obvious than it does on the other computers.
I think there are very few companies who have the clout to pull something like this off, and I think Intel might be one of the few that does. The content industry is already heavily dependent on Intel for the HDCP specifications and patents, and who knows what else going into the future. Are they willing to throw that away by pissing off Intel? I don't know.
A la carte subscriptions are exactly where TV needs to go. FIOS gives me something like 2000 channels, plus on-demand, and out of that I regularly look at maybe 20 of them. If I pared it down with absolute ruthlessness . . . ABC NBC CBS Fox Discover Science Smithsonian History Animal Planet CNN Fox News Comedy Central Maybe BBC America On-demand or AppleTV or something for movies. Done.
