A laptop reliability study conducted by Squaretrade reveals most reliable laptop manufactures. The sample size was from over 30,000 devices over a 3 year lifetime. No big surprises here as the cheaper bargain laptops and netbooks round out the highest failure rates and the more expensive systems last longer. The linked PDF is full of pretty graphs which is always a win.
Of personal importance is my current laptop manufacturer of choice the Macbook Pro’s ranking in the study.
[via Engadget]
OS X
Google’s Chrome OS project, first announced in July, will become available for download within a week, we’ve heard from a reliable source. Google previously said to expect an early version of the OS in the fall.
(Via Linux.com :: Features.)
Linux
AUC 2 – Arbitrary Unix Command #2
I thought it might be useful to cover some obscure unix commands that you may find useful in your day to day system administration. My primary work machine is a Macbook Pro these days, so I’ll lean towards cover commands that come with OS X. Most unix operating systems will likely have the commands I cover.
Read more…
Arb Unix Cmds
command, ls, shell, Unix
On the hunt for a travel netbook? After testing out early models with squished keyboards I decided to wait for a model with useable size and 10″ seems to be about perfect. I originally thought I wanted a fully loaded netbook until I realized that wasn’t the point. Netbooks are not intended to replace laptops. They are intended to be ultra portable with prices making them nearly disposable. Netbooks are perfect travel companions for photographers who need to dump the days pictures onto a backup external hard drive and review images on a screen larger than the thumbnail preview on the back of their camera.
Since a unit’s size is an important feature, how much juice can you realistically expect from the form factor? Find the list of which models last the longest after the jump.
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Linux, Photos, Toys, Travel, Uncategorized
AUC 1 – Arbitrary Unix Command #1
I thought it might be useful to cover some obscure unix commands that you may find useful in your day to day system administration. My primary work machine is a Macbook Pro these days, so I’ll lean towards cover commands that come with OS X. Most unix operating systems (OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris) will likely have the commands I cover as well so only the Microsoft-only folks will be left out. (sorry)
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Arb Unix Cmds
I recently stumbled upon this website (OpenSourceMac.org) which is a clean list of useful open source software that has been written or ported over to Apple OS X. This is very handy to email to your friend which you recently converted to Apple 
OS X
Do you only use unix once in a blue moon, need to setup crontab and can’t quite remember the order? (Without peeking at the image on the left)
Try out this handy cron job crib sheet which you can paste directly into your crontab as a reference each time you make a scheduled job change.
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FreeBSD, How To, Linux, OS X, Scripts
crib sheet, cron, cron job, crontab, easy
Since a lot of my friends have been “converting” over to Apple machines, they often ask about programs I have running that they don’t recognize. Here’s a (fully linked) partial list of applications I use daily either at work or when at home:
Now I know I said free software, but I had to include the following paid software I couldn’t live without:
Update: Want more? Here’s one list and another list.
What did I miss? Comments.
Internet, OS X
Apple, Free Software, Mac, OS X
