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Mark Gibbs

Gearhead

By Mark Gibbs

Comments and suggestions to gearhead@gibbs.com.

Gibbsblog - More Gibbs, only bloggier.

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Groundwork Monitor: serious network management
07/16/08
Nagios is a powerful, free, open source network management system, and when it's wrapped up in a virtual appliance it has to be one of the easiest ways to evaluate a serious network management solution
Nagios, lots of network management for nothing
07/08/08
Reader feedback revealed that the Nagios network monitoring and management system is available in a virtual appliance that means that Gibbs just had to take it out for a spin.
An IMAP book and measuring power use
06/30/08
A book on high performance IMAP servers and how much power does dimming a laptop screen save?
WhatsUp Gold: A solid new version with minor flaws
06/25/08
WhatsUp Gold from Ipswitch is a highly capable and cost effective network management solution that could replace far more expensive enterprise management suites for less than the cost of their annual maintenance. A few minor flaws mar an otherwise excellent product.
Reader feedback, erasing stress, and WhatsUp Gold
06/18/08
Gibbs responds to a reader's letter to the Gearhead column on Jott, Twitter, RSS feeds and Goosh; de-stresses with Stress Eraser; and starts reviewing WhatsUp Gold, a network management tool from Ipswitch.
Jawbone revisited and down the Google Docs rat hole
06/11/08
The Aliph Jawbone 2 is even better than the original, and Gibbs solves a data entry problem using Google Documents - it was a quick and dirty solution but it works.
Jott, Twitter, RSS feeds and Goosh
06/04/08
Jott, a speech-to-text service sets appointments, keeps lists and now reads RSS feeds such as Twitter's. And then there's Goosh, a command line for Google. How cool is that!
Photos, networking and tweets
05/28/08
A bit of a potpourri this week: A revised Eye-Fi product line, image manipulation applications, Twitter update, and Friend Feed, which could replace Twitter
Updating Twitter with cURL and Wget
05/21/08
Twitter can be a great way to broadcast corporate status data. Here's how to use command line tools to get the job done.
Eye-Fi links digital cameras to Wi-Fi nets
05/13/08
The Eye-Fi storage card uses clever and sophisticated communications technology to wirelessly transfer images from digital cameras to computers and Internet photo services.
Building with FreeBSD 7 and a rad headset
05/06/08
This week Gibbs adds another highly recommended book to the IT library and reviews a Bluetooth cell phone headset that is outstanding.
Books for the IT library
04/30/08
We review a few IT-related books, including telecom reference tomes, a book on the theory and practice of tagging, and a book on the use of scripting in Second Life.
Problems with virtualization
04/22/08
Virtualization systems aren't quite as compatible with, and transparent to, applications as Gibbs thought they were. Also GrandCentral accounts and disposable telephone numbers.
A cheap VoIP alternative: magicJack
04/15/08
Gibbs looks at magicJack, a good, cheap VoIP service, but support is lacking.
GrandCentral, one call to bind them all
04/08/08
Google's GrandCentral provides free and very powerful call management services.
Wi-Fi analysis tools
04/02/08
This week Gibbs reviews a really good Wi-Fi hot spot locator; looks at an update to Wi-Spy, the Wi-Fi spectrum analyzer that he previously reviewed; and raves about VisiWave, a Wi-Fi site-analysis tool.
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers review, Part 2
03/26/08
Gibbs concludes his review of the Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0, an OS virtualization system
Working with NSIS' screen-saver installer
03/18/08
Wrapping up building an installer with NSIS, figuring out which registry keys to set, finding a small residual probem, and discovering an OS X version of VNC.
An excellent FOSS installer for your tool kit
03/11/08
Trying to build a Flash-based screen saver led Gibbs to an excellent FOSS installer system that you need in your IT tool kit.
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0, Part 1
03/05/08
Gibbs begins an in-depth look at Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0, an OS virtualization system.
Gmail tips, Firebug, and server rebuilding
02/27/08
This week we discuss some technical details of Gmail addresses, rave about a Firefox add-on called Firebug, and relate the saga of rebuilding a W2K3 server.
XML to CSV solutions
02/21/08
Readers suggest tools for to address the daunting problem of converting XML formatted data to CSV.
Wrapping up the e-comm saga
02/13/08
Our series on e-commerce garnered a lot of feedback from readers and vendors and resellers. Here's a roundup of the responses.
Wrangling XML data to CSV
02/05/08
A quest to build a working e-commerce solution hits a new snag when it turns out you can get order data in XML format but there are not tools to make it useable.
The problem with Network Solutions' e-commerce product
01/31/08
We find some serious problems with Network Solutions' Pro E-commerce service.

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