O’Reilly School of Technology

Browsing through some of my favorite feeds I found this post on Slashdot. Apparently O’Reilly is starting an online School of Technology for those of us who don’t have the time for real courses or trainings because of our schedule. It offers multiple types of online courses from HTML/CSS to Linux administration and even give you a chance to earn a certificate from the University of Illinois for completing a set of courses. All materials, quizzes and tests that are parts of the course are online and you will be doing them in an online lab that is available to you for $9,95/month. This can be used even after you completed your course for testing or anything you can think of. Also you will have a tutor available to you via e-mail who will be responsible for your course. A typical course costs around $400 which ain’t that bad and the study time is 40 hours.

Linux vs Vista Home Premium

Well I installed Windows Vista Home Premium on my Dell D620 notebook thinking I am going into productivity heaven. Guess again…

Apparently Vista thinks that giving me a BSOD every few minutes is a good idea and will persuade me to keep it. Although I like the new nice look, AERO, the search (could be better), Media Center and all the other stuff Microsoft packed into it’s new OS I can’t simply look the other way when it comes to stability, driver incompatibility and constant DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL messages displayed on nice shiny blue screens. So in my quest for a new OS I am looking towards either the new Ubuntu Feisty Fawn due 19th of April, Fedora Core 7 due 23rd of May or, if I am really weak, back to Windows XP. It will most likely depend on whether the final builds of the both Linux OSes are really convincing. Anyone got a nice guide of installing linux on a Dell?

300 the Movie

I saw 300 last Friday and I was so amazed. Not only did it capture me with a great storyline, well developed and deep characters but also the great effects and graphics. The director spent a lot of effort on telling a simple heroic tale about the ancient Spartans. Not to spoil anything for those of you who haven’t seen it but let’s just say your in for a treat.
On a side note – there has been a lot of controversy surrounding this movie – the Iranians have complained that the ancient Persians (the bad guys in the movie) are ancestors of theirs and are beeing portrayed as barbaric savages. On the other hand – some think it’s a typical pathetic american story of a few heroes standing up to the evil mass. Well from where I stand this movie is a simple retelling of a story and has aboslutely no such connections as mentioned above. The Iranians complaining are really out of their minds. This is a movie, a story (a cool one at that) and nothing more. I think some people take themselves way to seriously….