I gave myself a nice treat and bought a new laptop. After some consideration, I decided to go with the HP Pavilion DV7 3150EB. Years ago, I didn't take an HP laptop as the reviews were not that satisfying. However, it looks as if that is past. So I first …

First of all, I've put the sources for Linux Sea online at GitHub. Not only does that safeguard any latest changes from not hitting my backup in time before my laptop dies (it's terminal, but I can't let him go yet ;-) but it also allows people who want to help …

A while ago I had the idea to create a simple tool that checks the CVE database against my current system. It would allow me to check if my system is somewhat up to date (no pending security vulnerabilities), but also to get an automated overview of the various software …

For a personal POC I wanted to see if it is possible to generate, based on the collection of CVE entries publicly available, a report informing a system administrator about possible vulnerabilities. Nothing fancy, just based upon versions.

A simple example: tool detects Perl, acquires installed Perl version, then matches …

Everyone that has been using Gentoo for a while now knows about tools such as qlist that show you the list of files installed by an (installed) package, or qfile that allows you to find which package provided a particular file on your system.

One thing lacking is to be …

Today, IBM generously hosted the GSE TWS BeLux 2010 conference. Although it was organized together with the GSE DB2 conference (which I would also have loved to attend) I must say I was pretty impressed with the topics given, especially those after the lunch.

For me, personally, the topic on …

Another update to Quizzer, now at version 3. But more importantly, updates to the Linux Sea related chapters are made available online - get a taste for it at the online quizzer set.

Feedback is, as always, very much appreciated.

A new version of the Quizzer webscript is available. The demo has also been updated with quick tests on the first few chapters of Linux Sea.

More exercises on the following chapters will follow soon.

Updates to the script include visual accept/reject of single-choice and multiple choice answers and …

Do you ever write down things in the hope you never forget them, but still think it would be better if you could somehow take a test of that subject from time to time to make sure you don't forget?

I do, and I found it quite difficult to keep …

Yesterday (argh, the day before yesterday) I went to a SAI conference on nosql. In Belgium, SAI is a non-profit organization for IT people which focuses on knowledge sharing.

The conference that day was on nosql. The presentation given by OuterThought was very good and offered a nice introduction to …