Productive/Creative – Analog Man in a Digital World
Some of you may have been wondering what my actual guitar setup looks like, so after some prodding from the Google+ Worship Guitarists Community, I decided to make a short video and explain what I’ve got and why I’m using it. Let me know if you have any questions.
In my quest to minimize, I will probably be rearranging some of this equipment, but I will still keep an actual amp setup in case my computer crashes in some way. Just wish MIDI controller pedals were cheaper on Ebay! Sheesh.
Update: Untangle recently released a very affordable “home” complete package. I’m going to reevaluate it, and update as necessary.
A while back I wrote up an article on how to set up the Untangle Web Filter distribution, and explained how it worked.
However, after a few months’ worth of using it, I’ve discovered a rather unpleasant shortcoming. Untangle doesn’t support keyword filtering. So, as easy as Untangle is to set up and configure, it doesn’t do the one thing I really needed it to do well: filter web content.
Don’t get me wrong, Untangle is still an excellent firewall/filter/etc. distro under certain circumstances, but for home use, the regular “blacklist” content filter just isn’t cutting it. Untangle works great for sectioning off your network, doing wireless sharing, access control, etc. and I’d still recommend it for a lot of uses. Just isn’t a strong enough filter to work on my home network. Without even trying, I was easily able to find and get to stuff I shouldn’t have. This is unacceptable when its primary function is to stop people from accessing unwanted web pages!
So, what do I do now?
Well, good news, there are plenty of web filter packages out there. The best one is probably DansGuardian, which is also free and open-source. The problem is, I can’t install it on Untangle, so I’ll have to completely redo the filter box with a different Linux installation.
Smoothwall is an excellent firewall/proxy/filter distribution, and I almost used it initially, but it’s not quite as easy to set up (I went with Untangle because of its easy setup). However, I recently discovered that Smoothwall has the ability to install third-party modules to add functionality, one of which is DansGuardian (and a Samba file server! Yay! Which is something else Untangle won’t do) so it looks like in the next week or two, I will be learning how to install, configure, and run the Smoothwall setup. It should work fine with the existing hardware I have, and it might even work with USB wi-fi adapters, which would be pretty slick. (This would be a great way to repurpose old laptops, etc.)
I will begin the process and document as it goes along. Wish me luck!
If you haven’t heard about Snowden and the NSA whistleblowing scandal, you either 1. live under a rock (with no internet) or 2. only use the internet to play Candy Crush (which is just as bad).
Basically, it was made publicly known that the U.S. Government records everything you do on the internet, including emails. Do you like the government having access to all of your emails and surfing history? Your passwords? Your private information? I hope not… and today, I’m going to show you what you can do about it.
Disclaimer: I’m not going to even address the faulted logic of saying “Why use encryption, I have nothing to hide!” Basically, the government can and will use anything you do or say against you if they want, for any reason they want, and their track record of mistakenly incriminating innocent people isn’t particularly good! Encryption is basically the digital version of the Fifth Amendment. Protect yourself.
Back before my web hosting server got wiped a few years ago, I had written a few articles on how to use something called “GPG” to encrypt computer files, primarily emails. GPG (Gnu Privacy Guard) is a fantastic application that basically encrypts computer information using public and private keys.
How GPG works:
There are lots of other interesting things you can do, and of course, it doesn’t encrypt the email’s headers… who it was sent to, the subject, and any other header data. But if you want to simply communicate without being snooped on, GPG will do it.
You can get started by downloading GPG and trying it out. Feel free to send me an encrypted message to try it out!
My public key (jeff@jeffhendricks.net) can either be downloaded here, or you can search for and download it from a GPG Keyserver.
One of the ways I’ve been able to save money over the years is to not buy new computers, or software for my older computers.
Seriously. When you buy a new computer, you’re paying for the hardware, plus a license to use some version of Windows, but to get Microsoft Office, you have to dish out another few hundred bucks. And antivirus, of course, need that, so that’s another $60. CD burning software? It doesn’t come with that? Another $20. Games? $20-$50 a pop. And you need other stuff to go with it, of course.
Wouldn’t it be nice to just buy a computer, and then be able to use it? Man. Who wants to spend an extra $300 on software to use on a $400-$800 computer? I sure don’t. Did you know that there are thousands of perfectly usable programs out there, that work just as well as the Microsoft stuff, that you can download, legally, for free?
Yup. So fire up that shiny new computer, and immediately go find a free web browser, like Chrome or Firefox.
Need something to open and edit Office files? Spreadsheets, documents, and so on? OpenOffice, or Libre Office. Both are fully-functional office suites, but completely and legally free.
Antivirus? Did you know you can download AVG Antivirus for free?
There are tons and tons of more productive things you can put on your computer, for free. Can’t upgrade to Windows 7/8? Things like Evernote, Dropbox, or Winamp will work fine on older computers.
But if you want to build the ultimate cheap/free computer, you can pick them up (usually with wiped hard drives) at Goodwill or garage sales. Sometimes I find them in a dumpster! If you happen to find a working, functional computer- even if it’s old- you can usually bring it back to life by installing some version of Linux on it, probably Ubuntu.
And Ubuntu is completely, legally, free. It works very similar to OSX, but you don’t have to pay $300! Not even $30!! You get an awesome, virus-proof fast-running computer for absolutely nothing more than the cost of the used hardware. How can you beat that?
It comes with Audio/Video software… free. Word processing, internet, chat, webcam, graphics, you name it! All for free, legally. All it takes is some time to get used to it, and learn.
I can’t believe it’s been two years. It seems like much longer, considering.
Two years since what?
Two years since I had my life turned upside down, through no fault of my own, and ended up laid out in a hospital room with my femur shattered in about 8 pieces, indebted to the hospital for $100,000.
It’s kind of a bittersweet remembrance. Of course, there are parts of it I wish I could forget, like the feeling of being slammed into a car’s windshield. I wish I could forget when they installed a traction pin through my knee with a cordless drill. I wish I could forget screaming at the top of my lungs when they moved me from table to table to table in order to get MRI scans. I wish I could remember everything that happened in the hospitals, the people who visited me, the things people told me about when I wasn’t strung out on painkillers.
But it’s not just about what I do and don’t remember. If life were just a series of random events, then all we’d have to do is wait for it to be over. Instead, I’ve chosen to look and actively see what God is trying to show me. Sometimes it’s obvious, and sometimes it’s not.
It’s not about what I do and don’t remember from the last two years that gets me. When I look back and try to remember the things I learned about myself, and about God, it reminds me that there is so much more to life than just waiting out your time.
I learned that God is extremely patient- to a point. Eventually He will get your attention.
I learned that no matter how strong you are, there are always situations that can and will break you.
No matter how broken you are, God still loves you, and He will bring you through it if you let Him.
It’s easier to hear God when you’re immobilized in a hospital bed with nowhere to go and nothing else to do but listen.
Sometimes listening to God is hard. Sometimes it’s painful, but necessary (like surgery). Sometimes it’s like a breath of fresh air. It always puts me at peace.
I learned that nothing in life is more important than spending time with God. Nothing. Without that, everything else kind of falls apart.
I learned that I could speak honestly with people, and more often, if I shared my hardships with them. People don’t want to listen to advice from someone who’s never been through hardship.
Hardships are well, hard. Sometimes unbearably hard. That’s okay, sometimes. You just have to lean on God.
There are many other things I learned while I healed, and I’m trying every day to remember them and live them out. Once your life has been turned around by God, you begin to understand how He works, and how He works through the rough times. He’s there.
Some days I wish I didn’t have a messed up leg. Every time it rains, my whole leg aches. It itches. It twinges and aches when I exercise, it hurts even more when I don’t. It’s a constant reminder of how I could have died… but didn’t. It reminds me that God is with me, every day, in every circumstance.
I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
I got the idea to post up the computer setup I’m using from MyLinuxRig, which is itself a derivative of The Setup which outlines what successful people use to get things done. So without too much fuss, here’s my Linux Rig questionnaire! This is what I use to get stuff done.
1. Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Jeff Hendricks. During the day, I am a technical writer for the Manufacturing Engineering department of a major agricultural equipment manufacturer. By night, I’m a writer and musician. On the weekends, I organize and lead the music in our local church.
2. What Distro do you run on your main desktop/laptop?
I’m currently running Ubuntu Studio 12.04, probably will upgrade to 13.04 for testing/documentation purposes. I started off with Red Hat 7.3 years ago, migrated to SuSE for a few years, and then settled on Ubuntu somewhere around 2008. When I discovered Ubuntu Studio in 2010, I knew I had found what I was looking for.
3. What software do you depend upon with this distro?
Ubuntu Studio is geared towards audio, video, graphic, and creative production in general. For music, I use Ardour, Hydrogen, SooperLooper, and a bunch of other tools… LMMS is nice, Rakarrak, and so on. Ubuntu Studio comes with just about everything you’d need for music production already installed and configured.
For writing, I use the Linux Beta of Scrivener, from Literature and Latte. I also use WriteOrDie (with Adobe Air) for those stubborn days of writer’s block.
For productivity I use Dropbox, Evernote (running in Wine), Lastpass, XMarks, Thunderbird, and LibreOffice occasionally. I use a lot of Google Chrome plugins too, especially CloudPrint, XMarks and LastPass. I use Evernote Clearly on a daily basis to read news articles without all the garbage ads and sidebars.
4. What kind of hardware do you run it on?
I’ve got an inexpensive HP 625 laptop, I upgraded it to 8GB of RAM. It’s not that fast, and the touchpad on it is very iffy… otherwise, it’s rock solid, haven’t had a problem with it. Does everything I want it to. If I upgrade in the future, I’ll probably go with a higher-end HP with a better chipset. (I’m also HP repair tech certified, so fixing those laptops is a piece of cake)
5. What is your ideal Linux setup?
I think an HP Elitebook 2170p (I’ve used these, they’re very nice!) would be perfect with an SSD and 8+ GB of memory. It’s got ridiculous battery life (around 8 hours with the extended battery) and it’s very portable, yet packs full-size laptop performance. And everything is Linux-compatible. It’d be perfect with a docking station and dual 22″ monitors! The only downside is that is uses Intel graphics… not my first choice. It wouldn’t be for gaming, though, so it’s okay.
6. Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?
Here’s a shot of my desktop running Native Instrument’s Guitar Rig 5 under Wine using ASIO drivers.
ADDENDUM:
What is a computer if you can’t have fun with it? Here’s some games I play on my Linux machine when I’m not working! Some I got from the Humble Indie Bundle, some from Steam, some I bought direct. All are native Linux versions.
Life On Hold:
Have you ever been at a point where you know you need to change, but you just don’t know where to start? Four years ago, I was at that point.
I had recently moved back to my home town, had a beautiful family, and was pretty much happy. Except that I wasn’t happy. I was pretty miserable in fact, but I wasn’t letting on. Why? Some of the reasons were related to my job, but a lot of it had to do with me being 40+ pounds overweight. I was weighing in at 5′ 11″ and 215 pounds.
“That’s not so bad,” you’re probably thinking. Well, no, relatively speaking, there are a lot of people that are a lot heavier than I was. But the reality was that I knew my life, and my weight, were spiraling out of control. I was always tired, having digestion issues, sinus problems, sleep apnea, and I plowed through it, being miserable and pretty much always exhausted.
But I knew there was a better way. Thanks to my friend Mike, I got interested in whole foods (which I knew practically nothing about) and realized how much garbage I was putting into my body. Somewhere in that time, my job started getting very frustrating. I was hating going to work, and I’m ashamed to say it carried over into my home life. I knew I needed a change, but I didn’t know where to start.
So, I bought a bike. Continue reading “How I turned my life around… and lost it again”
Update: Untangle recently released a very affordable “home” complete package. I’m going to reevaluate it, and update as necessary.
Well, like the title says. If you have a business or church that wants to have freely accessible (and filtered) wi-fi for guests, it’s not as daunting a task as you think. In fact, I can show you how to do it yourself… with stuff you probably already have laying around! You’ll need some computer skills, but nothing fancy. If you can use a screwdriver and know how to hook a computer up, you can probably do this yourself. Interested? Read on! Much thanks to the file people at Untangle.com who made this software package freely available for people like us!
First, we put together a list of things we’ll need.
Once you’ve assembled your stuff, you’re going to want to give the old computer a check-up to make sure it’s in good working condition. If possible, blow it out with compressed air. Make sure all the cables are connected. Make sure it has two open PCI slots for the network cards!
Continue reading “How To Add Free Filtered WiFi To Your Network”
You may have seen Youtube’s prank about shutting down on April Fool’s day. If you’re one of the users of Google Reader, you probably have heard that they’re really planning on pulling Reader down soon. Yup, they just decided one day that it wasn’t worth the effort to work on it… much less keep it going for the thousands upon thousands of users who rely on it (but they can afford to hire actors to pull an April Fools’ prank…) and thus we have people scrambling to find alternative ways to get the same things done.
As I got thinking about this (disclaimer: I had just started using Reader about a week before its demise was announced) a single thought popped into my mind:
What’s to stop them from pulling any of their other services for real? Or any other web service provider, for that matter?
Update: Untangle recently released a very affordable “home” complete package. I’m going to reevaluate it, and update as necessary.
Sometimes, you take a good long look at the internet, and think “I could really do without it.” There’s a lot of nasty stuff out there, and if you have kids, there are some things they just don’t need to see. However, we know kids are curious, and more and more websites are pushing inappropriate ads to younger and younger demographics. I could go on and on about the depravity in commercialism today, but that’s for another post.
Specifically, I decided to build a Firewall computer to filter what comes into my home’s internet. For my sake, and the kids’! Most of our computers don’t run Windows (and therefore don’t need antivirus) but there are worse things to let in than viruses. So I went to Newegg, picked up a cheap barebones computer (only needed a hard drive and memory) and in a matter of an hour, I had a complete, functional mini computer for well under $200.