Random Tech Stuff

The Ideal tablet

2011-04-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

For some time now I've been looking for a good tablet that will do a bit more that the Ipad. For some time I was under the impresion that the Android tablets would take over the tablet market and have apple running for their money. But sadly I was proven wrong and not because the operating system is not good enough but because the companies that build these tablets create their own interfaces and markets sometimes blocking access to the real Android Market place. Another factor that I think keeps apple the top dog is the materials they use in their products. An aluminium device fells much better than a plastic one.

I still believe I will be able to find a good tablet under $300 and can do as much as an Ipad can do and maybe a bit more. To make things a bit harder, I now have to find out if VMware has an Android version of their VIEW product released for the Ipad turning your Ipad in a full fleshed PC running Windows 7 with all the applications your heart desires.

So what do I want in a tablet?

Dual Core processor
2GB RAM
Bluetooth 2.2
802.11n
10" multitouch screen
HDMI out
Front and back facing cameras
USB input
GPS
Compass
Be able to run Flash
Be able to run VMware View client
Be able to connect a USB keyboard if needed.

If I find the perfect tabled I will defenetely will keep you posted.

Resize Disk Partitions on a Dual boot system with Windows 7 and Linux

2011-04-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

Here is the deal. Some time ago I got a Dell laptop with 500GB of disk space. For what I was doing at the time is worked pretty good, but one day I decided to install Ubuntu 10.10 on it so I could start playing with its 3d desktop enhancements. Since it was a play installation i only gave it 20GB of space.

Well, that came back a got me. After some time I got a part time job developing some php and mysql applications for a company and since I have a working solid installation I decided to use the Linux installation to do the development.

After a couple of months and 5 kernel updates I ran out of disk space and at this point of the game the Linux installation had become my primary operating system.

What to do? Reformat and reinstall? obviously that is not an option. Here is what I want to do:

Take space (80GB )from my Windows C: drive
Give it to my / partition

So here it is. Easy as 1,2 and 3.

Shrink the Windows Partition

Boot into Windows 7.
Login as Administrator.
run the following command: mmc.
Click on File-> Add/Remove Snap-in ...
Select Disk Manangement and click add.
Choose This Computer and click Finish.
Click OK.
Open Disk Management and right-click on the partition that you want to shrink and from the context menu click on "Shrink Volume".
Reduce the size to your liking and close the MMC.
You will be left with an unused partition in addition to the already created partitions in your system.

Boot your laptop with a Gparted Live CD.

Download a Gparted live CD and burn the ISO image into a CD. You can find Gparted here.
Boot the system with the Live CD and follow boot up steps. Make sure you get into the Gparted graphical mode, it will make things easier.

Increase the Size of your root partition using Gparted

Once in Gparted select the root partition and click on Resize. You can type the new size or use the scrolling arrows to set the new size.
Once you have the new size click apply and let Gparted do its magic.
Reboot your machine and voila you have done it.

See I told you as easy as 1,2,3.

Welcome to my blog

2011-04-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

After some time I finally got around to creating a blog that will contain pretty much any tech stuff I bump into. The intent of this is to create a list of helpful tips for all geeks out there. I will cover things like PHP, MySQL, VMware administration, Windows 7, OSX, and many other things I do. Check regularly for new articles.