Linux Mint–VMware Guest

Setting up Linux Mint as a VMware guest OS is pretty simple. Right out of the box with VMware Server 2.0, some of the functionality usually attributed to the VMware Tools was in place (most notably the auto capture/release of the keyboard and mouse).

I’ve always been one to use the official VMware Tools (VMT) with my VMs, but newer Linux kernels have changes that don’t allow various drivers included with VMT to compile, so I decided to try the Open Virtual Machine Tools this time around.

There’s an easy way to get the OVMT: install the Ubuntu package: sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-toolbox. This works fine, but the tools are likely to be out of date. At present they are about 7 months out of date.

Here’s what I had to do to get the latest version installed from source:

  1. Download the open-vm-tools package
  2. Install the necessary development libraries: sudo apt-get install xorg-dev liburiparser-dev libpng-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev libproc-dev libdumbnet-dev libicu-dev
  3. Compile the tools: make
  4. Install the tools: sudo make install
  5. reboot (may be optional)

VMware Server still prompts me to install the VMware Tools, but I think everything is running as it should be.

Linux Mint–Initial Configuration

I’ve finally bitten the bullet and installed Linux natively on my laptop. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time and I’m very glad to say that I have.

The first question to answer was that of distribution. There are so many out there, which one should I use? I’ve been a casual Linux user and system administrator for several distributions and my experiences there have led me to one conclusion: a Debian variant. RedHat is a decent distribution, but it uses RPM for packages and I’ve always felt that they’re a little clunky. I’ve experienced most of my package installation problems when dealing with RPMs.

Now that the Linux distribution family is chosen, which variant should I use? Debian is OK, but since it’s a little more difficult to use out of the box, I typically use it only for a server. Ubuntu has been my “go to” distribution since it’s based on Debian but is definitely designed for at least a techy, if not an end user. I recently heard about Linux Mint (an Ubuntu derivative) and how it supposedly takes Ubuntu to the next level with UI. Since I’ve had an Ubuntu installation on a VM at home for well over a year, I decided to go with Linux Mint. Continue reading →

A Poem Regarding Computer Spell Checkers

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Barbecue Restaurants

Ohio

The Good

The Bad

The Unknown

  • Montgomery Inn (Cincinnati) (recommended by Josh Winn)
  • Bubbas (W of Cleveland) (recommended by Josh Winn)
  • City Barbecue (Columbus) (recommended by Josh Winn)
    • More of a “lunch” place

National

  • *Famous Dave’s (national) (recommended by Dave Brown)

 

Bread Twist-Tie Colors

When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which is the freshest, so you “squeeze” for freshness or softness? Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different color twist tie. They are:

  • Monday = Blue
  • Tuesday = Green
  • Thursday = Red
  • Friday = White
  • Saturday = Yellow

So if today was Thursday, you would want red twist tie; not white which is Fridays (almost a week old)! The colors go alphabetically by color Blue- Green – Red – White – Yellow, Monday through Saturday. Very easy to remember. I thought this was interesting.

I looked in the grocery store and the bread wrappers DO have different twist ties, and even the ones with the plastic clips have different colors. You learn something new everyday! Enjoy fresh bread when you buy bread with the right color on the day you are shopping.