Home » Archives for 2011
by Mike Levin on December 15, 2011
That one virtuous way of which I speak of learning and mastering technology happens to be embracing Unix-like operating systems (including Linux), then stripping out as much as possible—including the GUI. My goal is teaching you the now-standard “plumbing” of most information systems on the planet, from the majority of supercomputers to the majority oh home [...]
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by Mike Levin on December 15, 2011
Want to run Linux Server? Here it is. Download, unzip and double-click it. It’ll pop up on your desktop. Scared of what you see? Then, just “X” out of it. No problem. If you lose your mouse pointer, press Ctrl+Alt to get it back (even on Mac). This is Levinux, my derivative distribution of Linux. [...]
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by Mike Levin on December 15, 2011
I’ve started various personal websites in the past, but none really turned into much. I never had a plan or a real direction. This time, I’m here to specifically teach you the Unix shell (more or less), the Python programming language, the vim text editor and the Mercurial revision control system—and how they work we [...]
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by Mike Levin on December 14, 2011
As a child, I loved science art equally. Somehow over the years, I ended up in marketing—perhaps because I hated school, and followed the path of least resistance too often. In marketing, I dealt with issues that intersected art and science (the Web made that more common) and solved some very tricky problems. In doing [...]
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by Mike Levin on December 14, 2011
I am going to teach you how to use cheap little under $100 mini-servers (a.k.a. PythonPlugs) as alternative to the cloud, on your way to achieving high-tech super-powers. You are not the master of your own fate unless you are also the master of your own hardware—not to say you shouldn’t use the cloud. I will [...]
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by Mike Levin on August 29, 2011
Old dogs have to learn new tricks in the field of information technology, and I’ve decided that the best new trick is Linux / Unix mastery. It’s going to take me many years to truly get there, but thankfully, you can be awesomely productive without mastery, and this article is about taking progressive steps through [...]
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by Mike Levin on August 23, 2011
Okay, most of my purposes for these tiny servers is to run simple services. I don’t need all the device support, desktop GUIs and pre-installed components that come with so many Linux distributions. Also, now I’ve repositioned myself onto FOSS for my everyday desktop platform (thank-you, CommodoreUSA), and so it was time to trim down [...]
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by Mike Levin on July 28, 2011
Jack Tramiel, the man of steel who truly ushered in the era of the home computer, died on Sunday, April 8th, 2012. Computers for the masses—not the classes! Okay, the Commodore 64 is back. And truth be told, I didn’t really even own one the first time around—even after working for Commodore for four years [...]
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by Mike Levin on July 21, 2011
Have you have seen my Commodore 64 unboxing video? I’m strangely excited about this thing, which is little more than a powerful netbook motherboard (NOTE: New versions have very powerful 3.5GHz i7 processors) in a retro case with a really fine keyboard. Yet somehow, when loaded with a solid version of Linux, it becomes a [...]
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by Mike Levin on July 12, 2011
I saw an R.I.P. post today on Google+, and here was my response. What you’re missing is that Google+ is always there, always working, always flowing in and around you making using it almost transparent. Google+ lives in the world that you live in during day-to-day work, Googling, doing email, etc. Conversely, Facebook feels like [...]
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I am Mike Levin+, an Earned Media Optimizer, husband, daddy & Linux / Python hacker living on top of the hill on top of the island on top of the world. I put my stream-of-consciousness here in order to create greater commitment and consistency in pursuit of my goals.
