I’m sure if you are even passingly interested in technology news you are probably aware that we are once again on the cusp of a big Apple event. This happens every year to some degree. Since the world went gaga for the iPod some time back this means tons of media coverage. Even the morning news shows now tart up a 4 day old story as Tech Bytes and feed it to the masses.

The iPod, the iPhone, iMac, iaM tired of it. Even the i fixture in front of the word speaks less of original thinking and more of branding, and its fast becoming hackneyed

I like a machine that does what it is supposed to do, hopefully with as much transparency as possible and then goes about its business. I have never been one to give in to devotion or cultish following of any tech products. At their core they are purchases to be made, or not. Ecosystems to support, as someone in tech support, and liars. All products lie to you either through omission, or through outright deception. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: apple, Bill Gates, devoted, fanboy, functionalism, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, open source, PC, Steve Jobs, Windows, your rights

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Milestone of a show, I remain stunned by your support. Thank You

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There is plenty of news to go round today as the summer picks up the pace. Can you believe we’re already halfway thorugh the summer? I saw my first back to school shopping commercial on July 12th, an all time early bird commercial. Luckily despite the economy being a bit down the news has kept flows. We have plenty to talk about in the worlds of Robots, Linux, Morse Code, and of course a ton of coffee and food bits collected at the end for you to savor.

The CaffiNation is also very proud to take part in the Summer of Podcasts Contest Head on over and check out the shows rocking the codeword this week. Listen in for the codeword for Our Show this week!

Enjoy the show and Stay Caffeinated!

• Back Channel: All the Cruft, non of the Chaff
  
• Where else can you find me? www.paulrjmuller.com

Geek Cruft

• Burger King wants your precious kinetic energy
• Linux booting in under a second? in a three minute video
• USPS to cut costs by implementing a linux package tracking solution
• Value of Private information. Rorschach Conundrum
• Cable organization doo dad
• Pittsburgh Skyscraper does Morse Code Wrong
• iPhone Server Cluster?
• Rechargeable Air Horn, for the super fans
• Carved Computer desk and keyboard
• Router turns off when no one is home
• Petro Algae, looks like soylent green
• Biomass consuming robot EATR back in the news
• Transformer cufflinks, are not more than meets the eye

Food & Caffeinated Bits

• Cook like a cave man
• Wood or Pixels you decide. Food Service geekery designed here
• Triforce Cutting board for Steve
• Space Invader Cutting board
• Toxic Mug decal
• Compact BBQ, but a little off base
• Single Serve Pantone Chip Cups

Thanks and Stay Caffeinated People!

Tags: club, Coffee, eatr, Food, Linux, milestone, morse code, pantone, robot, summer of podcasts

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Sore throat, but awesome topics

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We’re having a nice simple week leading up to the forth of July holiday here in the Caffination Lair. Hopefully the weekend will have plenty of grilling and fun with friends and family. On top of all that I’m very excited to start roasting coffee in my house very shortly! Well technically outside or at the very least in the garage, but still I’ve been hungry to get into this field for a while and I’m hoping to have some fun with this in the very near future, details to follow when the green coffee and the popper arrive!

Other than the antici… pation of Roasting is been a relatively smooth week here. So the show has a great feel with lots of nostalgic fun, Legos, Arcade games, a C64 laptop, and so many more fun things have been dug up. Want to try Chunky coffee? I’ll have to explain that.

The CaffiNation is also very proud to take part in the Summer of Podcasts Contest Head on over and check out the shows rocking the codeword this week.

Enjoy the show and Stay Caffeinated!

• Back Channel: All the Cruft, non of the Chaff
  
• Where else can you find me? www.paulrjmuller.com

Geek Cruft

• I hosted TPN Weekly on Monday. Check in for some fun
• Via Nik’s Tiwtter FriendFace Video
• Arcade Games via Stop Motion Lego. Nostalgic Awesome Fun
• Clock needs flesh of the living to run
• Real Life grappling hook, not a baterang
• Linux for children? sounds like a neat concept
• Crazy Visual illusions
• Challenging Modernity, Walkman Artifact found and used
  • Body Ritual among the Nacirema, Anthro Reference Material
• How bored do you need to be to build a bulldozer? out of a fiat
• Robot hunts for bodies… this can’t end well
• Commodore 64 Laptop?
• Aging Superheroes
• Vacuum Tube sound card
  
• Twitter has issues with Tweet
  
• Clip on battery charger! awesome idea

Food & Caffeinated Bits

Today’s Coffee is Tea

• All the can opening fun without the beer reward
• Shortly going to Roast! Ordered from here
• How to roast with a popcorn popper, by MAS
• Beverage adapter for biking
• Kitchen is more than meets the eye
• Chunky Coffee, and other oddities
• Some play with their food, this family goes to war

Thanks and Stay Caffeinated People!

Tags: arcade, Coffee, commodore 64, commodore 64 laptop, grappling hooks, Lego, Linux, potato gaitlin gun, roasting coffee, Superheroes, Techpodcasts, TPN, twitter, vacuum tube, water

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Today’s Show:  Web Design, Fear Mongering, Linux, Electricity, Green Tech, AP, Legos, and Cookies everyone likes cookies

Tons of content, but not much energy. Having a down cycle with caffeine right now but i will bring the news and fun to you just as quick, but maybe not so loud. The news was wide reaching this half of the week with interesting tech coming out of unlikely marriages, GM and Segway? We answer the question, Do 3D desktops make sense? AP is biting the hand that feeds them and Linux starts an interesting ad campaign.

All these stories and more. We’re continuing our Adopt a NewB Day celebration with More blog design guides and quick tips for blogging, living digitally and managing your online presence.

Happy Passover to all who are Celebrating!

Enjoy the show and Stay Caffeinated!

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• CaffiNation Back Channel: All the Cruft, non of the Chaff
  
• Where else can you find me? www.paulrjmuller.com

Quick Hits

• Blog Design Guide: Focus & Writing Copy
• Simple Tool Rule, building a foundation
  
• Design Websites? Check Browser compatibility quickly
• Part Fear mongering, Part real. Electric Bugaboo
• Green tech is out-employing old guard, what does it mean?
• Boards still won’t work on water
• We Are Linux: My Favorite Vid

Geek Cruft:

• AP think we steal their content, and return no value
• They even sued their own affiliates, for using the Corporate YouTube Channel
• GM and Segway, everyone is talking
• Wii Weights? Come on
• 3D Desktop Concept released, but resources are precious
• Lego Archaeology
• Lego Jewelry
• Old but good Lego Fashion Show
• Totally Cool link Legos, Form a Mini theater that works!
• Street Fighter Shirt, is unbelievable
• Nostalgia is a Warm Phaser, set to awesome
• Altoids tins reborn, awesome collection of projects
• Star Trek Surprise is the right way to do fan service
• Creepy Robot child of the day award

Consumable & Caffeinated Bits

• Lego, Tetris and more in Ice
• Second Pitcher of mudslides take a bit longer to make
• Fun Wine Rack
• Worst Soap Idea ever, but looks the most delicious
• Twisted Mug
• Caffeine Workout Rundown Thanks Jaap!

Thanks and Stay Caffeinated People

Tags: AP, Archaeology, Cookies, Electricity, Fear Mongering, GM, green tech, Legos, Linux, Segway, Street Fighter, Video Games, web design, Wii

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Today’s Show:  Joy, Lego, Mario, Carbon Fibre, Carbon Footprint, Gold, Green Tech, Gardens, Helicopters, Pools, Peeps, LEDs, Linux, Pacman, Japan

Before I get down into the show I wanted to again mention how happy I am for my good friends Jimmy and Cathy. As they start their life together I wish them nothing but the best the world has to offer, but know that they already found that in each other.

Today’s show is all about things that make me happy, not really a few of my favorite things but definitely a stream of consciousness show pulled together from stories which struck my fancy, and intrigued me to know more. Sometimes its simply a headline, other times the whole concept spoke to me on some level. I really enjoy putting shows together like this so hopefully that comes through in the final take.

So I ask you to come with me on this fun little adventure as we stroll through he gardens of tech jokes and the glades of  caffeinated dreams. A bit flowery of a description but hey its springtime.

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• Back Channel: All the Cruft, non of the Chaff
  
• Web Presence Index www.paulrjmuller.com
• Congrats to Jimmy and Cathy! Again, and Thank you

Quick Hits:

• April 1 is a big day for virus’ Patch your machine
• Countdown to Lawsuit, Lawn Darts return
• Heat your food for camping, but try and pass this by the TSA
• Let it Shine, LED Headlamp theater
• Phantom limbs, and further study
• Collection of Tesla Coil Geek Anthems

Geek Cruft

• Linux Error, Did you mean windows?
• Telecommuting is down, but who could afford and Office Pod?
• Gold bars from Recycled jewlery, for green gold
  
• Physics gone wrogn with Pacman? Almost a great game
• Twitter me from the road, via OnStar?
• Banjo Hero
• Timelapse Garden Camera
• Economy of Space, projector screen is hidden
• A Helicopter Hotel? 5 years of work  lifts off  June 26th
• Bean bags in the pool? Genius!
• I might need this shirt, Rubic’s revealed
• Carbon Fibre is the new Platinum
• See the Music, audio tape as an art medium
• Super mario Coffee Table
• Visit Japan, before the Space  Squids do her in

Consumable & Caffeinated Bits

• CaffiNation Reviews Foosh Energy Mints
• Largest Lego birthday Cake Ever. Legoland celebrates 10 years
• Birth of a Demon, The peeps are coming
• USb Cup warmer, clock, they just don’t work well people
• R2D2 pepper mill? what can’t he do
• Take a shot out of anything
• Friend Foe or Fuel, you decide

Thanks and Stay Caffeinated People

Tags: Carbon Fibre, Carbon Footprint, gardens, Gold, green tech, Helicopters, Japan, LEDs, Lego, Linux, Mario, Pacman, Peeps, pools

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Today’s Show: Reviews, Caffeine, Christmas, The Pope, Hanukkah, Toasters, Coffee, Linux, Collaboration, Twitter, Apple

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This is the time of year when busy people go crazy, and crazy people go just a bit further, I have collected a great deal of news to tide all the busy folks over with information until they can stop to catch their breath while still leaving something to the imagination. We have a ton of great stories from serious to funny, from hoaxes to product reviews. As always its an eclectic show to say the least join us for our very own holiday rush edition. Remember if you’re still shopping to be kind to your fellow man, and if you’re done shopping to get out of the way of the crazy people who still may be.

Enjoy the Episode!

• Back Channel Links Tumblr Blog Grinds
• The RSS Feed for this Podcast

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: apple, caffeine, Christmas, Coffee, Collaboration, Hanukkah, Linux, Macworld, Reviews, solar power, The Pope, Toasters, twitter

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Today’s Show: Utilities, Spyware, Virii, William Gibson, Hackers, Literature, Culture, Identity, Linux, Levity, Music

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Tonight’s show is a bit of a deviation from the normal show. We talk about some heady topics, such as Race relations online, we delve into Linux as a tool for educators, and we dig into some really useful utilities that you may want to consider for your PC. Overall I hope this show ends up being very useful to you.

Enjoy the Episode!

• Back Channel Links Tumblr Blog Grinds
• The RSS Feed for this Podcast

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Culture, Hackers, Identity, Levity, Linux, Literature, Matthew Ebel, Music, Santa Claus, software, Spyware, tips, Utilities, Virii, William Gibson

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Today’s Show: Coffee, Drugs, Watches, Plush Toys, Holidays, Visual Styles, Ubuntu

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This episode is what happens when you are stuck writing, producing and otherwise cramming content for this long. I love what  do and I can only hope the episodes have been worth the fun. I’m starting to hone my workflow even more and I might just do a Making of The CaffiNation shortly. Let me know what anyone thinks of that. Might be another live show in the works too. Testing the waters. Speaking of waters I have been inundated with questions about how to make better coffee, what type of machine to buy ect. On today’s show i have a couple different tips for these questions, and I’ll be adding my own thoughts in as we go through them. I might also try my hand at writing a bit of a how to guide in the future, but not sure about it yet. A Long show with a ton of content and a bit of gab in between.

Enjoy the Episode!

• Back Channel Links Tumblr Blog Grinds
• The RSS Feed for this Podcast
• Need a Bumper or Intro for your show? Let me know, Thanks Chuck!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Coffee, Drugs, fruit, Holidays, Linux, Paul Muller, Paul Rj Muller, Plush Toys, tips, ubuntu, Visual Styles, watches

 

 

LAMP is the Way to Go

I recently had a server die on me at my day job and I needed to choose a new os for it. After consulting twitter. I was suggested by Knightwise that I should go with a LAMP install of Ubuntu. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, Mysql, and Php. All of the elements I needed in one spiffy package. I had never done one of these before so I decided to give it a shot. Let me tell you this install when blindingly quick. It took longer to download and burn than it did to have a working web server again. With less than an hour of total downtime, including swapping video cards, and burning an ISO. Both of those were done at the same time. Thanks So much to Sir Knightwise for that suggestion. I have run linux servers for a while but i never tried the Lamp install. Quick and painless let me tell you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: functionalist, LAMP, Linux, suse, ubuntu, web server