Scamwagon

This little tip will hopefully be helpful to webmasters with deadbeat clients out there.  Scenario: you host site xyz.com for Joe Smith.  The site runs on ancient version of Joomla, which relies on an old, unsupported version of PHP. It's a pain to update, edit, and worst of all is a huge liability.  You might get paid to get the site reactivated, but you haven't heard from Joe in long enough that you suspect you won't.  You've decided to leave the site functional for another month.  Meanwhile, you have a webserver to migrate.  What is the easiest way to move the site without breaking it? Run an old version of PHP.  There are lots of problems with this option, which I don't think I need to go into. Convert it to a static Imagine if you could have a working snapshot of the site and all of its resources. Images, javascript widgets, CSS, content, everything!  The site is a lot harder to edit (although not impossible), but you are no longer anc...

Introduction and Rationale This is part one of a major effort to document my experiences with recreating my home studio, entirely using Linux.  Without getting into too many of the specifics, a few months ago I decided that I was unhappy with Windows' shenanigans - to the point that I was ready to make a serious attempt to leave it behind.  For most in this situation, the obvious choice is to switch to Mac OS.  With its proven track record, support, and options for multimedia production, it is naturally the first alternative to consider if your goal is to simply use something other than Windows. For me the choice was not so simple. I despise Mac OS and, in general, the goals and philosophies put forth by Apple in an effort to ostensibly provide users with an "easy" working environment.  It does not help that I have also failed to find any aspect of the Mac OS UI intuitive, but I realize that this is a subjective matter. With my IT background and user-control* f...

A few months ago, I replaced my laptop and my desktop.  The move was motivated by a need to reinstall the OS (Windows 8) due to slowness and broken system components.  My desktop was particularly nasty - the Windows update mechanism broke, causing it to take 3 hours to boot up.  I spent the 2 months leading up deftly avoiding reboots, lest I lose a half-day of productivity.  Reinstalling the OS is somewhat traumatic, as I have lots of configuration to do, so I decided that I might as well update my hardware as well.  I also decided 2 other things: Try to switch away from Windows dependency as much as possible. For things that require Windows, try Windows 10, since it will eventually be the only Windows choice anyway . Linux On both my laptop and desktop, I am running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS - and I have to say, I am doing remarkably well.  To my amazement, I can still do all of my mixing in Reaper, on Wine .   The MOTU 896 FW interface is another stor...