Birth of a Geek, Part 2

At the time I thought it was the greatest thing that could happen to me. I mean, what computer geek wouldn't love working at Fry's while working on a degree? It only took a couple of months to discover that, as a computer geek, working at Fry's was not all it was cracked up to be. However, I did get to meet and converse with other computer geeks, some more "hardcore" than myself, some less so. It was also during my tenure at this big-box retailer that I came face-to-face with Linux. Sure, I'd seen and heard about the "Geek's Operating System" (my terminology) before, but had never given it more than a quick passing thought.

Then, one day, after transferring from the "front-lines" to the software department, I found I had a lot of extra time on my hands to just peruse the software being sold. Of course, this was at a time in the world when Red Hat still sold boxed copies of Linux and before SuSE became part of Novell. In fact, you could even buy a "boxed" copy of Slackware Linux at Fry's back in those days. Looking back I can say that I did indeed enjoy those few months that I worked at Fry's, to the extent that I could, at any rate. Hell, I actually still love the store itself to this day. I refuse to buy motherboards, CPUs, RAM, hard drives - anything, really - from anyone else. Toward the end of my days as a Fry's employee, one of my co-workers presented me with two CDs containing the latest version of SuSE Linux (unfortunately, I do not remember which version it was, now, but it was the last version to come out pre-Novell). I went home after work that night and immediately installed it as a second OS alongside Windows XP Pro on my PC. The rest, as they say, is history. Thus began my trip down the rabbit hole, so to speak. I was hooked.

That version of SuSE Linux came with KDE as the default desktop choice (I honestly don't remember having the option to install the Gnome desktop instead. If I am wrong about this, please correct me), and I fell in love with it. Of course, I would later move on to RedHat/Fedora and the Gnome desktop. Such is the way of things in the world Linus built. I remember the installation was surprisingly pain-free, especially as a second OS on a PC filled with hardware intended for gaming in Windows. The sheer volume of included, high-quality software, out of the box, was the other thing that was a very pleasant surprise. From that moment forward I became a lover of all things open-source. I could easily see the power and flexibility provided by "Free and Open-Source Software", hereby referred to as FOSS in this article. Aside from gaming, I quickly discovered that I could do anything that I normally did in Windows, such as chat online, surf the web in a modern browser, or any other geekery. Plus, it was fast!

It wasn't long before I realized I had stumbled into a unique opportunity to grow as a geek and pursue the "higher calling" of becoming a Linux-savvy professional. And so, rather naively, I sought out all I could find on how-to become a pro Linux tech. One large life-mistake later, in addition to moving away from Dallas to Houston during the summer of 2004, my dream came true. I got a job as a Web Technician at EV1 Servers in Houston where I was thrust into the very heart of IT geek culture. I was taught Linux and learned how to provide tech support for Linux servers and I loved absolutely every minute of that job. I will always look back on it with great fondness. That job was short-lived, unfortunately, due to that horrible mistake I mentioned above, as I was forced to move back to Dallas a few months later.

I still love and use Linux to this day, though. I've grown leaps and bounds in my knowledge of it, and have learned how to configure some of the smallest details and settings in various Linux distros, although the *buntu distros are my current go-to, with Lubuntu being my overall favorite for everyday use. Sorry, no discourse here about the perceived pros or cons of the Unity desktop in Ubuntu. Gotta keep some things un-aired!

A few years ago I began to rediscover my old, childhood desire to immerse myself in the world of software development, thus becoming what I equated as the "Ultimate Computer Geek." Linux will do that to you, and it's not an entirely bad thing, to be honest.

Check back next week for Part 3, in which I conclude this article series!

Birth of a Geek, Part 1

I will always look back on my days as a fledgling computer geek with great fondness. I had clearly marked a line in the sand that represented the absolute limit of my comfort zone at the time, and then dared myself to cross it, unabashed, full of confidence. I wanted to be elite; to be a true computer geek. Sure, I had spent a few months experimenting with an old Compaq Deskpro En business desktop that had been given to me by a close friend. I cut my teeth on that thing, really. I learned how to upgrade my RAM from 64MB to 128 MB; I installed a discrete PCI-based graphics card (the machine had no AGP slot); and I learned everything I could about Windows 2000 Professional simply by tinkering, experimenting, and often breaking it to the point that I had to reinstall and start from scratch. I had a master plan, though, and it began with the research and planning toward building my own computer. To me, at the time, that was the initiation ceremony. In my own mind I could not possibly consider myself to be a true computer geek if I had not built my own rig from my own carefully drawn blueprints.

I began with a copy of the current issue of Maximum PC, back in 2002. That issue was the Holy Grail for me at the time, because the main article was a complete guide to building your own rig, including recommended parts and practices. I planned for weeks. A few months, actually. Cash was tight so instead of going all out for a top-of-the-line case, I went with a simple beige box. I cared little for aesthetics at that time. All that mattered was having my own computer that I had built myself. The one area where I did splurge, however, was in CPU and RAM.

I clearly remember the day when I made the drive to Addison to a "hobbyists" computer parts store where I made my first purchase for the rig: an AMD CPU. It was a Thunderbird 1.1 GHz chip and I put that thing through its paces over the following couple of years. For RAM I went with 256 MB of either Corsair or Kingston (I can't honestly remember, now, it's been so long since then), which was a respectable amount of memory at the time. Hard drive was a Western Digital 40GB drive and I used a 17" Dell CRT monitor that was given to me by a dear friend at work. And, of course, the only operating system I could conceive of using at the time was Windows 2000 Professional, although a few months later I managed to get my hands on a pirated copy of Windows XP.

I'll never forget assembling and testing that computer from those parts. I was on Cloud 9 and I had such an amazing sense of accomplishment. I went on to later add a discrete graphics card and other small, incremental upgrades as necessary. That rig carried me through the "Golden Age" of gaming, as I often refer to it. Others may know it as the time of the Quake 3 engine's reign over the world of computer games. I played and mastered Quake II, Quake 3 Arena, Warcraft 3, Serious Sam 1 & 2, and Neverwinter Nights with the aid of that first "Frankenstein" rig. I also continued to push my knowledge of Windows XP system administration. In fact, I learned all I could about software and operating systems. Those were the good ol' days. Even though I look back on that period with great affection, they were definitely awkward, in a way. And, I was quite aware that an evolution must take place at some point. So, it seemed quite natural to me when, in late 2003 into early 2004, I began to look longingly at Linux. And thus began a new phase in my life as a computer geek, when I pushed myself to the next level again and began an insanely fun pursuit with a very specific purpose and goal in mind.

Check back next week for Part 2 of this ongoing series!

Custom BASH Prompt in Ubuntu 11.04

Here's a quick tip for anyone who would like to customize their BASH prompt in Terminal. First, open a Terminal session, and list the contents of your home directory, making sure to include the
'-a' option to see hidden files:

    user@hostname:~$ ls -alh


You should see a file named .bashrc. This is your BASH configuration file. Open the file using gedit:

    user@hostname:~$ gedit .bashrc


Note: If, after running 'ls -alh', you don't see a .bashrc file in the results, don't worry! You can still type 'gedit .bashrc' (without the quotes) and it will create a blank .bashrc file in which you can paste the code seen below.

Once open in gedit, scroll down to around line 39, where you should see '#force_color_prompt=yes' without the quotes. Delete the '#', thus uncommenting the line and activating it.

Next, scroll down to around line 50, where you should see a section that looks similar to this:

if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then  

     # PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '  

     PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;31m\]\t\[\033[01;31m\] \d\n\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '

else    

     PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '

fi

unset color_prompt force_color_prompt 

     **The default bash prompt is commented out at the beginning**

As I have noted in italics above, the default BASH prompt is commented out at the beginning, just under the 'if' statement. My own custom BASH prompt is the line below that begins with 'PS1='. You can ignore the second 'PS1=', as long as you uncommented the line I mentioned above. Feel free to copy my BASH prompt and use it, if you wish. If you'd like to construct your own, I recommend taking a look at this article from IBM for reference on the various BASH prompt variables available: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-tip-prompt/

That's it! Happy customizing and please feel free to share a screenshot of your custom prompt in the comments below. 

Who's that!?

After over half-a-year of inactivity, I have once again reactivated this blog. Back toward the first of the year I was blessed with an opportunity of a lifetime in the form of a job as a graphic designer and web developer at a local, non-profit organization. Score!

Because I am the first ever graphic designer at this organization, I have been insanely busy getting graphics of all shapes and sizes up to speed here, in addition to getting my elbows greasy under the hood of the Moodle Course Management System. The main focus has been to launch an awesome new online school and it has been a fun, arduous, and educational journey but, by God's grace, the school launches in just a few short weeks!

Anyway, I'm ready to get back in the groove here with Socketbrain! My first order of business is two-fold: to build a strong branding and begin offering valuable and insightful content and articles. I may expand on that further in a future post, but the bottom line is that I will strive to update this blog with at least two new posts per week initially, and grow from there.

I'm excited about some of the ideas I have for this blog, as well as the direction in which I wish to go with it, and hope to get many of you involved!

If you're interested in contributing to the blog, please feel free to email me: kenreynolds78-at-gmail-dot-com.

Geeky New Year

I've been immensely enjoying the Christmas and New Year holiday this year, mostly with family and friends. The biggest highlight was seeing "Tron: Legacy" in IMAX 3D. Awesome experience. Highly recommended! Anyway, today's post will be short, as I am still in the midst of celebrating and kicking back.

I wanted to share a website for all the hardware hackers out there. It's called Circuit Gizmos, and they can be found at the following web address: http://www.circuitgizmos.com/index.shtml Circuit Gizmos is not just about selling cool USB interfaces and motion detectors, home automation products, and electronic devices for hackers and hobbyists, however. They also have a page with some very cool projects, found here: http://www.circuitgizmos.com/wordpress/index.php

I definitely recommend this awesome site to any hardware hackers or hobbyists out there looking for cool products and projects.