Mark R. Hinkle

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Top Stories by Mark R. Hinkle

One of the many ways I put myself through college was as a bartender. At the time I perfected my Bloody Mary recipe but as time has gone on I have forgotten the exact recipe so I have been trying to figure out the right proportions. This still isn’t quite right but it’s getting close. Spicy Bloody Mary Recipe I usually just buy a 64 ounce bottle of tomato juice and pour out the eight ounces so I can use the bottle for the mix. 56 ounces tomato juice (I go for the low sodium Campbell’s but use what you like) 2 TBSP Horseradish (if you grate your own that works, otherwise buy some good german horseradish) 1 TBSP Old Bay Seasoning (crab seasoning if you can’t find the original) 2 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce 4 ounces Clam Juice (if you like clams you can skip this and substitute Clamato for the tomato juice) if you don’t like clams then just start with 60 ounces of tomato ... (more)

Learning Automatic Configuration Management with Puppet

If you are going to operate a cloud at scale then you most certainly need to use some ways to automate the configuration and other tasks like provisioning when you spin up cloud infrastructure. One of my favorite open source projects for doing this is Puppet sponsored by Puppetlabs. Puppet is a client-server application that allows you define roles and configurations for infrastructure in puppet manifests then deploy those manifests across numerous servers simultaneously. In addition Puppet has another project, the Marionette Collective (MCollective), which allows you to automa... (more)

Linux.SYS-CON.com Exclusive: What Would UserLinux Look Like?

Last Monday at the Desktop Linux Consortium Conference at Boston University’s Tyngsboro, Massachusetts Campus there was a lot of talk about a “UserLinux” distribution. The topic was sparked by remarks by Bruce Perens who voiced a need for a distribution that was designed to meet community needs for a desktop operating system based on the Linux community favorite Debian distribution. I contacted Bruce who has been kind enough to interject some comments to my own text. They are marked [thus]. The thought of UserLinux sparked my thinking. The thing I like about Linux is that it’s ... (more)

CPUBuilders by Stratitec Linux Computer System

Colleagues and friends often ask me about Linux since they see it referenced everywhere from Business Week to quirky IBM and Dell commercials during football games. I am always eager to share my experiences - I say that it takes a bit of time to get up to speed, but it's worth it in the end, especially for those people who have been victims of the latest computer virus. The biggest hurdle for them is usually installing Linux. However, recent home-user PCs are making it even more practical to take the first step into Linux. Wichita, Kansas-based PC builders Stratitec announced a ... (more)

KDE's KIOSK Admin Tool

Linux is infinitely configurable. It's so flexible it runs on mainframes, cell phones, PCs, even gaming stations and digital video recorders (DVRs). This is one of its biggest strengths especially for those who want control or the freedom to tailor a desktop PC to their specific needs. It is also a boon to the system administrator who may want to configure the desktop to the point where it serves user needs, not their whims. Depending on your organization your desktop may be locked down so you can't install unnecessary programs that can cause the system to fail. In cases like sch... (more)