Adobe turns on the cash vacuum...

In an effort to extract even more money out of their end users, Adobe now "rents" out its products, instead of "selling" you the software outright.
"Customers have to come to terms with the end of perpetually licensed software," IDC analyst Al Hilwa told the Associated Press.

Hey Adobe.
Stuff it up yer corporate butthole!
Here's software that you can use to create professional results, and NEVER pay for it.

Inkscape for bezier curve based illlustration.
http://inkscape.org/

The GIMP, the best image editor I have worked with.
http://www.gimp.org/

Scribus for desktop publishing.
http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus

I have worked with all of the above...and they all have their strengths and limitations. They all require a short learning period, but any complex piece of software does. Maybe $70 to $100 bucks a month per user will help to make the learning curve a little smoother.

Other people have created their own lists of free replacements, so check their suggestions if you need more input...

Good discussion on a whole slew of programs.
Lifehacker article with pricing info.

A puddle of computers...

I've picked up a consulting client that is really an interesting case study in IT. I'm coming in with no experience in the particular software that they are using, but that's no big deal. The software vendor provides OK support, and I can work with them to figure out what I need to know. I've always been better at the physical bits anyway, I can plug stuff in and make the blinky green lights all day long.
It's a story that I've heard many times, the client doesn't the level of support that the (newly outsourced) vendor is providing, with the added twist that they need to migrate away from Windows XP. Most of the computers are members of WORKGROUP. There is a firewall (whew), but no DHCP or internal DNS, no domain controller, and the only documentation I have been able to find is a printed list of IP addresses with computer names. This list has been taped to the wall for so long that it has been painted around. It's just a puddle of machines. Time to once again refactor the ball of mud.

What he said....

"My blogging muscle has, I think we have to accept, died and fallen off, like most everybody else’s."
-Warren Ellis, Machine Vision 043: We Persist

Rant.

Dear Hewlett Packard.

Please sell your printers with the required USB 2.0 cable. Maybe you would be able to get your market share back if you made it easy for your customers to use your product. Packing a $2 USB cable with your printers would help.

thanks

Ian

MAAS Juju Bootstrap Questions

How to get juju working in Ubuntu MAAS:

Here is what I know:

• You must have MAAS set up, and have 2 nodes that have passed Commissioning.
• You must have created an ssh key for yourself, and it helps if you save this in your profile in the MAAS console.
• You must make sure that the nodes that you plan on using in your juju environment have closcks that are correctly set.

Here is the process that I am using these days after I have a number of commissioned nodes that I want to use in my cluster:

• run juju bootstrap
• Examine the MAAS console to determine which node was picked as the juju node (It will say allocated to <user>) in the status column.
• Reboot this node.
• This will cause it to install new software that includes the juju agent, and the ssh keys necessary for trusted communcations.
• Reboot the node once it is finished installing the new OS and software.
• On the MAAS master node, run juju status.