Gateway FPD2485W 24" LCD Monitor: The Newest Hotness
Posted on 2007-07-30 at 08:25
I've added some new hotness to my home desktop: The Gateway FPD2485W 24" LCD Monitor.
It's sweet, clear, low-priced, and easy to adjust and use. Plus, it means my monitor is probably bigger than yours[1]. If you don't think that sort of thing matters, then I'm better than you in that way, too. ;-)
[1] unless you are one of those mac guys with the 32" cinema display...in which case, know that my jealousy is endless and I covet your pixels.
Drawing with HTML and Tables
Posted on 2007-06-24 at 15:53
Insane. Just insane. I want to see the final source code for this web page:
Truth Happens
Posted on 2007-05-06 at 15:02
Truth Happens: Get used to it.
The Woz Speaketh
Posted on 2007-04-20 at 09:12
Wednesday evening, I and a guy from work went to listen to The Woz speak for the Virginia Beach Forum. Anecdotes and some tidbits follow....
In addition to the speech, we scored tickets to the preceding, more exclusive, meet-n-greet where I got to spend no small bit of time talking with him directly.
The Woz is known as a casual guy. I made a conscious decision to dress casual. I wore a long-sleeve undershirt kinda thing and a pair of army pants. Upon arrival to the meet-n-greet, I learned that it was more correctly called a 'cocktail party'. So, I and my friend were the only ones there not dressed up. I have poor decision-making ability.
I asked him about Venture Capital because I have no shame.
He holds a magic ring made of mithril that knows which way is up. I shit you not. This ring will in the darkness bind them, if you know what I mean.
He believes in the idea of software patents, with some caveats. I will forgive him this trangression, for he knows not what he says. ;-)
He worked for two weeks to get a working prototype of a floppy disk for a tradeshow early in Apple's history. After an all-nighter, he finally had a working floppy disk. He went to make a copy of the good disk and accidently copied a bad disk image over the good one, instead of the reverse as intended. This story made me feel better about all the various similar things I've done. To Mark: Outlook Express. You understand.
The mayor was there. She was totally bogarting all of the Woz's time in the beginning of the cocktail party. I had a plan to walk up and ask the Woz about his views on illegal immigrants just to send her running away with a "no comment", but she left as I walked up. Lucky git!
Technically, there was one person dressed worse than us at the cocktail party, but he didn't know it. Dark blue blazer (miami vice cut), black dress shirt, white tie, mullett. Seriously, the guy looked like he stepped out of a Hall and Oates video. Sorry dude, but I can't go for that. No can do.
Pens. Dude had three pens clipped to his shirt and several in his pockets. Maybe it was for autographs. Maybe it was just his crazy showing itself. Either way it was kinda neat and odd.
That's all for now. If I think of more, I'll write more.
New Mouse and Print Server
Posted on 2007-04-11 at 08:03
I got new toys.
Netgear PS121 USB Print Server: Rocking little box that plugs in the network hub and the printer and shares it all out. Niceness.
Logitech MX Revolution Mouse: Goo Gaas and Doo Dads Galore! The buttons on this mouse have buttons of their own. I think it will control objects in 18th dimensional space. Plus, it's smooth-licious and shine-tastic!
As We May Think
Posted on 2007-04-01 at 15:08
Once, in college, I wrote a paper in which I offered a short list of some of the most influential people to modernity. I suggested T.S. Eliot, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, and Vannevar Bush offered more to change the worldview of modern man than most others.
The professor didn't appreciate my choices. She liked them all, mind you, except that last one. She'd never heard of him, and therefore didn't see how he could have been that much of an influence. I never could convince her that her logic was specious and her assumptions faulty (go figure). Nonetheless, I kept his name in the essay, despite her insistence that it's inclusion would color the final grade I received for the paper, but I was far too interested in getting an education to worry about things as mundane as grades.
She doesn't read this blog---of that I'm certain. That said, I feel compelled to remind people just how important an unknown figure can be to our society. Read Vannevar Bush's essay "As We May Think" as published in The Atlantic in July of 1945. Truly seminal work.
Stripe Generator
Posted on 2007-03-30 at 14:58
This is a niche item, but if you have need to create a striped pattern (web design work, mostly, I'd guess), then this site will make a striped pattern to your specifications quite easily.
And, yes, the header graphic on this page was generated using this tool. Not that it matters, as I am hankering to do a redesign of the site soon. I'm bored with this one. I want to go snazzy next time, I think.
Five things that need correcting
Posted on 2007-03-21 at 18:38
- The White House thinks it's above the law. Karl Rove should be forced to testify...and do so under oath. So should the rest of them. They've been treated as untouchable for too long. I am dusgusted and embarrassed to have them leading my country. Plus, being unwilling to testify under oath is just pussy. Be a fucking man about it, George. If you wanna claim all this unprecedented power, at least have the cahones to step up and say it loudly. Nothing worse than a dictator without the guts to actually, you know, dictate.
- The FBI is abusing it's power (insert faux shocked look here). They have a history of it. Just look up all the stuff they did under that one cross-dressing dude. People should lose jobs over this. Some jail time would be nice, too. Let's end this debate over whther they did or didn't. Of course they did it. They are the FBI, for God's sake. They take power like a sponge takes water. It's time to squeeze some of the excess back out.
- I'm still working...at a job...in an office...with people. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?!? The fact that I get up and go to work is like a daily miracle on the order of the loaves and fishes.
- Google hosted mail service does not yet itegrate all of Google's apps. Get it together, guys! I want to have one interface for my hosted mail service, docs and spreadsheets, reader, and web analytics. You offer them all, but I need a different log in for each service. Laaaaame. This atrocity of inefficiency is made all the more glaringly sinful by its having been perpetrated by Google, who wrote the Gospel of Efficiency. Shine that halo up and reclaim your saint-status soon.
- Television is still delivered in channel-sized chunks to my home via the airwaves. OK, one last time: I want my tv à la carte. I want to subscribe to a show, not a channel, let alone a channel "package" of 150 stations of crap. Moreover, TV is cheap now. Where are the really good tv shows produced independant of the hollywood machine and delivered to me via the Internet? Any kid with a Mac can make a sci fi show. Joss Whedon, I'm talking to you! You don't like TV. I get that. They stabbed Firefly and spit on the corpse. 'Nuff said. But why not take some of that bankroll you got and innovate the medium. Do a good show. Answer only to yourself and deliver it via a method that make you beholden to noone. Produce it so long as it's profitable. Do it. Do it now. I demand you do my bidding. And stuff. Please. Pretty please? Grovelling can be a part of the package as needed.
Random Hostility: Sip it slowly so you can enjoy it longer
Posted on 2006-09-09 at 14:53
Maybe once this cheaper, faster FIOS stuff is done kicking Bryan's shit-ass company in the face for a few months, they'll consider a price reduction/speed increase. But then again, maybe not. Cox is run by retards. I know this because they hired a monkey-faced idiot like Bryan straight off the production line at the dick factory.
Gnome 2.16 has been released
Posted on 2006-09-08 at 06:47
Gnome 2.16 has been released. Read a review of the new Linux Desktop. Read the release notes for this version to see what's new. Love the gnome. Hug the Gnome.
Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 (or just beta 3)
Posted on 2006-09-01 at 19:43
According to Microsoft, they have released Windows Vista RC1. But not really.
You see, to be a "release candidate", the relase should be something they are considering, you know, releasing. But it isn't. From the mouth of Platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin:
You’ll notice a lot of improvements since Beta 2. We’ve made some UI adjustments, added more device drivers, and enhanced performance. We’re not done yet, however — quality will continue to improve. We’ll keep plugging away on application compatibility, as well as fit and finish, until RTM.
So let me get this straight. This release is a "release candidate", but you say you aren't done with it yet? Fascinating. Say, I'm working on a project at my current client. I've put about two days into it and I've still got about a month to go, but maybe I, too, should put out a "release candidate". I'm sure that would fly.
Windows Media Center Edition 2005 blows vomit
Posted on 2006-08-25 at 21:55
OK. It's a bit of an overstatement, but...
When you buy a Media PC with a stereo rack component look and feel that bills itself as a replacement for your Tivo, it should be able to fill that role. Windows Media Center Edition 2005 does not. The system would go into suspend mode and require a reboot to return to normal operation. It wouldn't play many of the media files I threw at it. I understand not playing flac files out of the box (it's a bit obscure, I suppose) but many AVI files and even some MPGs were non-working. All those files, for the record, played just fine in Linux. The guide information was regularly incorrect. And finally, when I finally decided to show it to someone else, I fast forwarded through the commercials of a show only to find that it would not leave fast-forward mode.
Needless to say, the system was returned. I want to be clear, the system, an HP Media Center PC, was not the problem. The problem was entirely Mirosoft's. All the problems had patches which fixed those problems and added new ones. In the end, I found myself performing maintainence on a box that was supposed to be a stereo rack component. I don't have to do this for my DVD player, nor for my extant Tivo. I don't feel that I should have to do it for my Tivo Replacement.
Total satisfaction score: 3 out of a possible 10. The idea has promise, but the software implementation was a miserable failure. I suspect MythTV would have been a better choice for HP to put under the hood.
Eye Candy for Gnome
Posted on 2006-06-17 at 13:28
The workplace switcher for Gnome 2.16 is gonna be a bit blingier:
The new Gnome Dockbar bling is kinda neat too (watch it in action by clicking below):
And don't forget the wonderful new(ish) Gnome Bling Manager!:
That's among the many reasons why I say Vista is a waste of money!
Problem with Guild Wars in Ubuntu Linux
Posted on 2006-06-11 at 15:25
So, I got Cedega running nicely under the latest version of Ubuntu, but when I installed Guild Wars (a seamless install process!) it told me that my video card was undetectable and asked me if I wanted to continue or cancel. When I selected Continue, it hung indefinately. This was a problem.
The fix was straightforward, though. I set my Cedega app to run games in a window, then when I entered the game and the error popped up, I hit Continue and it showed me the screen. I set the video up manually there, then exited to save the changes to disk. Then I restarted Cedega (not sure I needed to, but I did) and changed the Cedega optiosn to open full screen again. Viola! All was fine.
What was the problem, you ask? Many modern games have all sorts of card-specific commands they utilize to take advantage of native card performance. Cedega, however, only shows them a generic card, so the game could not detect the card properly. The video was all skewed and the result was what looked like a black screen. In the window mode, however, I could see that the screen was there and running, but in a small corner of the open window. Manually setting the video options to what I want saved them to disk so that the next time the game was opened it didn't try to detect the card and change the settings. All worked fine after that.
If you have a similar problem, I hope this helps.
Klingon Rules Of Programming
Posted on 2006-06-09 at 21:23
A while back I posted the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition that have been so helpful to my thriving business, so it is only fitting that I also post the Klingon Rules of Programming as a follow up.
- Specifications are for the weak and timid!
- What is this talk of 'release'? Klingons do not make software 'releases'. Our software 'escapes' leaving a bloody trail of designers and quality assurance people in its wake.
- This machine is a piece of GAGH! I need dual Pentium processors if I am to do battle with this code!
- Indentation?! I will show you how to indent when I indent your skull!
- Klingon function calls do not have 'parameters'. They have 'arguments'---and they always win them.
- Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Our software does not coddle the weak.
- You cannot really appreciate Dilbert unless you've read it in the original Klingon.
- I have challenged the entire quality assurance team to a Bat-Leth contest. They will not concern us again.
- A true Klingon Warrior does not comment his code!
- By filing this SPR you have challenged the honor of my family. Prepare to die!
- You question the worthiness of my code? I should kill you where you stand!
- Our users will know fear and cower before our software. Ship it! Ship it, and let them flee like the dogs they are!
You have been warned.
Dual Core CPU Upgrade Path
Posted on 2006-02-15 at 20:26
I was looking into possible upgrade paths for my and wife's newest systems---not because I need to, but just because I wanted to see what options we had for the future. What I found was that becuase we chose good motherboards (ABit) and a solid CPU socket choice (AMD 939 socket), we can upgrade as needed from our current AMD Athlon 64 CPU's to the newer AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPUs (dual core chips!!!). I am most pleased. I could move to a dual core chip right now for as little as $295. Pretty good upgrade path for when the time comes to do so.
AWStats in Ubuntu
Posted on 2006-01-16 at 11:28
I've been using Webalizer for purusing my logs to see what visitors frequest my site. Webalizer is a good free software application for getting a quick overview of site trends, but I wanted more detail than it offered.
I consulted the Great LazyWeb (via his esteemed oracle Google) and was given a vision that I should install awstats.
To install awstats in Ubuntu all i had to do was "sudo apt-get install awstats". Afterwards, I modified the /etc/awstats/awstats.conf file to point to my apache logs for the log location and to a directory I created called awstats for the working directory (ie, where it puts everything). Specifically, the following bits from the conf file are the bits I changed:
LogFile="/var/log/apache2/tomde.access.log.1"
LogType=W
LogFormat=1
SiteDomain="tom.digitalelite.com"
DNSLookup=1
DirData="/var/www/awstats"
There were two small gotchas for the uninitiated. First, when I tried to run it with the command "perl awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -update" it told me it couldn't find the file awstats.pl. Well, a short find command later and I discovered that Ubuntu put it in the /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ directory. So I changed my command to "perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -update" which worked like a charm. The app ran and did...nothing that I could see. Thus the second small gotcha. Apparently all that command does it compile the log data into a database format for it to use later for report generation. So I found the commands to run for each report (again, the Great LazyWeb provided me the guidance I sought, Oh Great LazyWeb, Thou art grand indeed.). It suggested that I could run some particular script that would run all the reports at once, but I could not find it, so I took all the commands for each report, copied them into a single shell script and ran that. The shell script looks like this:
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -update
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=alldomains -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.alldomains.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=allhosts -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.allhosts.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=lasthosts -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.lasthosts.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=unknownip -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.unknownip.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=alllogins -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.alllogins.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=lastlogins -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.lastlogins.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=allrobots -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.allrobots.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=lastrobots -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.lastrobots.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=urldetail -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.urldetail.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=urlentry -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.urlentry.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=urlexit -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.urlexit.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=browserdetail -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.browserdetail.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=osdetail -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.osdetail.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=unknownbrowser -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.unknownbrowser.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=unknownos -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.unknownos.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=refererse -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.refererse.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=refererpages -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.refererpages.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=keyphrases -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.keyphrases.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=keywords -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.keywords.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=errors404 -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.errors404.html
After running that script, suddently awstats provided me just what was promised. Not as simple as webalizer, but not too difficult either. And the details it provides are greater than webalizer! I am pleased.
Now, go forth and do as I have done that we may show glory to the Vision of the Great LazyWeb in out words and deeds.
My Predictions for 2006
Posted on 2006-01-06 at 11:32
The new year is upon us and with it a plethora of experts predicting the fate of their respective industries for the coming year. Rather than insult the experts, I'll submit to tradition and offer my own thoughts on what I expect to see this year for the software industry. Here are five specific predictions I have about the coming year.
1. Linux will master multimedia and thereby gain a new enemy---the multimedia content industry.
I expect that during this year, we'll see linux begin to make its audio/video experience simpler and more comprehensive. The Linux multimedia experience will surpass the Windows and Apple multimedia experiences in ease of use and in breadth of coverage. With it will come legal issues related to Digital Rights Management.
2. Linux will lose server market share to Windows
The latest offering from Microsoft greatly improves the stability and therefore reliability of Windows' Server Edition. All this is done without sacrificing ease-of-use for the admin tools. I hope I'm wrong, but I think this will negatively impact linux server market share in the short term. In the long term (ie, after htis year) I see this is a non issue. The benefits of linux are too great to ignore permanently.
3. Linux will gain desktop market share at Window's expense.
This one is a bit to obvious, since that has been happening at a steady rate for years, so to make it interesting, I will offer a concrete number: 5%. Linux will take 5% of the desktop market by year's end. This will mean that it surpasses Apple (unless Apple also grabs a greater share, which is outside the scope of this prediction). This increased marketshare will not be at Apple's expense, but rather at Microsoft Window's expense. In short, the long predicted "Year of the Linux Desktop" is, in some sense, upon us. Other's have predictied this in th epast and been wrong. This is the first time I'm predicting this. I, of course, will be right.
4. Home Servers will become the new thing to have.
Long a staple of the geek's home, home servers---serving up music and movies and more---will start to take hold in the general populace. By year's end, I predict that the youth market will be on board with this trend, looking for ways to store, access, and share their growing collection of digital miscellany. I'm not sure it will happen byu year's end, but soon enough the market will respond with appliance server devices similar to those on the market now for file and printer sharing. these new appliances will do much more than server files and printers to requesting computers. They will offer the ability to playback music and video, share printers, trade files with remote friends, serve web sites, and more.
5. Apple will enter Tivo's market
Apple will release a hardware solution (not just a software solution, which they already have) that will compete head-to-head with Tivo. Apple will, by consequence, begin moving itself more into the role of entertainment computing and away from professional computing. They will still offer professional enterprise solutions, but they will come to be known as the vendor for the entertainment market, just as they used to be known as the vendor for the graphics market. Specifically, I think Apple will embrace this new conception of themselves. Unlike the graphics market, the entertainment market is all but limitless. They can, and will, make a killing by playing to this.
6. Chairman Bill Gates will download himself into a computer and Google will drop him from the cache
I know I said I'd offer predictions, but I'm throwing this one in for free. Mark my words, Bill Gates will transfer his being into the cyber-ether and Google will in an act of techno-violence remove him from their cache. Many will decry the actions of Google as evil, but punishment will be softer than the public rhetoric. Life will go on.
Consequences
If any one of my above predictions are wrong, even number six, I will eat my hat, provided that I can find a chocolate hat by December 31st of this new year.
New and Improved List-O-Things That Gnome Needs
Posted on 2005-12-29 at 10:44
A while back, I wrote down a list of things I wanted to see Linux get. It's been a year and a half since I wrote that list and I wanted to revisit it to see what has been done and what needs doing now.
My first list in review:
- Money Management Engine: Not only is this not done, it's not even begun or discussed. I still think it's a good idea, but it looks like unless I'm willing to write it myself it ain't happening...unless Gnucash decides to add it to their 2.0 version and have kept that feature hidden and secret this whole time. I'll hold out hope for that.
- Music Engine: There hasn't been much movement on this front, though the discussions of Gnome 3.0 (codenamed Topaz) suggest that such a thing might be in the works for that version. In the interim, Muine and Rhythmbox, for instance, still insist on using their own back ends instead of agreeing on a standard.
- Supplyline integration with the entertainment industry: This was pie-in-the-sky when I first mentioned it. Since I put it on my list that hasn't changed, though at least now there exists iTunes support in Gnome, which is a step in the right direction.
- Better SDL/OpenGL APIs: A complete no-go.
- Better Hardware Integration: Finally a success! Since I wrote this list, hardware integration in Linux has grown greatly. Most things that I've used are simply plug-n-play (but for real, unlike what windows calls Plug-n-Play). More work needs to be done, but I can only be pleased with how smoothly hardware is being supported in Linux nowadays.
- First-Timer Wizards: I've heard it mentioned elsewhere, but so far I've not seen anyone implement such a thing. In retrospect, I'm not sure it's a must-have item as much as a would-be-nice item.
- Hot chicks: Linux still lacks the hot chicks. I hold out hope that it'll change soon, though, and us Linux geeks will be the new rock stars with our stretch limos and groupies and trashed hotel rooms.
So what about now? What do I think Linux and Gnome need now? Let me tell you:
- Money Management Engine: This idea is still good enough that I want to see it happen. Here is a quick run down of what I mean by this.
- Unified API: Linux, or at least Gnome, needs to clarify and unify the API as I describe here. This will help to bring in outside developers, which Gnome and Linux both sorely need. It's time to open this thing up to the legion of Windows-centric developers out there who would write for Linux if the API were more approachable.
- Administrative simplicity: Right now, if you use any of the mainstream linux distros, you can use linux without difficulty, but administering the box is still difficult. Gnome needs to HIGify (yes that's a word, google "Gnome HIG" to see what I mean!) the admin processes. That means, for instance, installation needs to be cleaned up (Ubuntu and Apt-Get do a lot for this but the problem still exists). But it also means we need to start seeing good, HIG-compliant admin interfaces for at least the most common of the services, like apache, bind, mailman, postfix, proftpd, and others. Sure I can install webmin and do it that way, but Webmin is hardly HIGified. I mean something as simple to use as Microsoft's Enterprise Manager to administer PostgreSQL or MySQL. I mean something as simple as Microsoft's IIS admin tool to administer Apache. We've taken care of the end users, not let's show a little love for the linux sys and network admins.
- User-loadable drivers: Let's face it. Linux can supply decent drivers for our hardware, but things like graphics cards are always going to perform better when using the closed-source drivers from their own manufacturers until we can change their minds on that issue. In the interim, how about something as simple as a directory like ~/.drivers where users can place proprietary drivers for use by the system as needed. I mean a simple schema like this: System boots up. System finds built in drivers for all hardware. System shows log in screen. When user logs in, system scans ~/.drivers for any drivers that purport to be for hardware that is currently being handled by a system driver. If a driver is found, the system driver resets with the user driver. If not, the system driver continues to work. This is brain dead simple, allows a user to decide for themselves if they want a proprietary driver running on their system, and makes it easy to make such a thing a user preference. Of course, it would be appropriate to have a way to turn this option on and off and the system level so that corporate users can't play with drivers without the admin's permission. Easy enough to add that option to an /etc/userdrivers.conf file. Each distro can decide for itself based on its target market what the defautl setting will be. Red Hat, being corp user centric might defalt to "No", Ubuntu being home user centric might default to "Yes". How hard is that? I know there are some logistical issues with swapping drivers during login, but to the best of my knowledge none of them are real showstoppers. Seems like something that would take a kernel hacker a day or two to throw together. And yes, I do understand the stability ramifications of this idea. I still think it's better than the current solution!
- Mac Menus: Yes, it's been discussed ad nauseum, but I have to side with the pro-Mac menu guys on this one. It'll free up real estate and make for a cleaner interface in general. It's a major change (in that it'll require retooling of a lot of extant apps, but the end result will be worth it. For the record, it'd be much easier to do the retooling if Gnome had a unified API already! ;-)
- Hot chicks: I'm gonna have to reinclude this item. I mean seriously, what's it all about if not being the idol of millions of screaming girl-fans?
Pr0n is not Junk?
Posted on 2005-12-28 at 17:06
Forgive me if you already knew this, but I avoid Microsoft technologies whenever possible. I'm at a client where I must use Microsoft Outlook. I was trying to unset some sort of "I'm Important" flag on a message I received (because I think I should be the one to decide if a message is important to me not the sender!) when I noticed that under the "Junk Email" menu I have to option of sending a sender's address to either the Junk Sender's List or the Adult Content Sender's list.
I guess that makes it easy to toss the junk mail and get right dow to the business of slowly purusing the flagged adult content. I'm being serious when I say this: Can someone tell me why Outlook assumes a business user (Outlook is designed for businesses, after all) would want to distinguish between adult and non adult content when sorting through junk mail? I just assumed that all junk mail got deleted. I guess Microsoft knows the business user market better than me.
Probabalistic Statistics and the Grain of the Web
Posted on 2005-12-19 at 08:02
Not to be just collecting links today (as I'll probbly be posting original content later today) but this one is a worthy read. It's an article that helps to explain why things like Wikipedia and Google are the successes that they are.
The new server
Posted on 2005-12-10 at 08:01
I'm in the process of setting up a new server for the website and mailing lists and all that jazz. I'm moving from my old Dell Pentium Pro 200 with 64 MB RAM and a 3 GB HDD to a Toshiba laptop Pentium II 233 with 96 MB RAM and a 5 GB HDD. What a huge leap! lol!
The reason I'm doing it is twofold. First, My current server has some serious under the hood config issues. It's secure and it's stable, but if I change anything, it'll likely crash and die. Secondly, a laptop is a better always on server. It'll use less power than the current system and it has it's own built in monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Also, the laptop has a USB port. I can expand the HDD size with an external USB drive as needed. That could be useful.
More ranting about Internet Explorer
Posted on 2005-12-08 at 08:02
If you are reading my blog using that crap browser, then the headings at the top of this page are garbage. IE still steadfastly refuses to support transparent png graphics. I could convert all my png's to gif's which IE supports, but I care so very little about supporting IE that I'm not gonna. If you are using IE, here's what you need:
OK. that was a bit over the top, but you get the idea. Get Firefox and stop gnawing at the rotting end of the Internet carcass.
Web 2.0?
Posted on 2005-11-04 at 08:02
I know some of you didn't even know about Web 1.0 until relatively recently, but did ya know that there's a Web 2.0 coming 'round the corner?
When I first heard the term "Web 2.0" I was struck by the sheer late 90's DotComedness of the name. But I've been listening, and I have to admit that---try as I might to take the cynical slant on this one--I find the underlying concepts reasonable and plausable. Let me explain this whole Web 2.0 thing as I understand it.
When the Web portion of the Internet was first released into the wild, Tim Berners Lee (the guy that thunk up the whole "hyperlinked text" idea in the first place) really didn't know what sort of ecosystem it would generate. It was designed around the ecosystem he knew: Academic publishing. A person of sufficient merit to own a web server would publish his work to the web where others would read it. For quite a while this pattern held fast. But times change. People starting seeing the use of the Web and started envisioning a greater thing. A web not only of pages but of people and of applications. This fundamental shift in thought is what birthed what has come to be known as Web 2.0.
If 1.0 was about websites, 2.0 is about blogging. If 1.0 was about Kodak's Ofoto, 2.0 is about Flikr. If 1.0 was about Akamai, 2.0 is about BitTorrent. The shift is one from taxonomies to folksonomies, from publishing to participation. The Web 2.0 is about hyperlinking people and the seemlessly gluing together the applications they use. It's about third party add-ons to Google maps and wikis and web services.
In principle, these are the sorts of things of which I want to see more. The days of clicking quietly through the web re dwindling. Soon you'll be chatting with others in real time who are visiting the same web site as you, leaving your opinions about the contents of a page you found, posting to your own blog and soliciting feedback, and doing it all from a desktop that integrates perfectly with the outside world.
It's late but I have more to say on the topic. I'll blog more tomorrow, maybe.
MUST HAVE!!!!
Posted on 2005-11-01 at 08:01
Take this, MiniMac! I want one SOOOO bad. Why? Because I do, that's why!
Web 2.0
Posted on 2005-10-31 at 08:03
This is the new buzz. Expect my thoughts on this so-called "Web 2.0" in the next couple of days.
Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft
Posted on 2005-09-03 at 08:01
There is something fundamentally wrong with Steve Ballmer. I mean, this man is controlling the software direction of over 90% of the personal computers on the planet and he is a lunatic. Why would you use this man's software?
Sticking it to The Man
Posted on 2005-08-16 at 08:01
Online advertisers are now complaining that when we delete browser cookies, we are taking food from their mouths. Though I understand that the ability to better manage browser cookies is disruptive to their current business model, I don't feel any particular moral imperative to help. Advertising is about lying. It's about making us feel less than complete, then offering us that which will make us whole again. Disrupting that sort of enterprise is, itself, a fulfilling endeavor. To that end, I present for linux users a simple script to remove unwanted browser cookies:
#! /bin/bash
cd ~/.mozilla/firefox/$profile/
echo "drop firefox cache and history"
shred -u Cache/* history.*
echo "grab all valid firefox cookies"
egrep '(slashdot|mapquest|mywebgrocer|news\.google|netflix)' <cookies.txt >cookiesnew.txt
echo "get rid of all cookies not explicitly kept above"
shred -u cookies.txt
mv cookiesnew.txt cookies.txt
echo "done"
Just replace $profile with the profile string for your install (it'll be in that directory) and run the script. It'll remove all your browser cache and history, as well as any cookies not explictly mentioned in the egrep statement above. Set it to run on log out and the advertisers will have one heck of a time trying to track you from day to day.
Why did I use shred (destroy the file) instead of rm (remove the file)? Because I'm one of the lunatic fringe that prefers it when a file that he's deleted is, um, deleted. Call me crazy.
Still?
Posted on 2005-08-15 at 08:05
Are you viewing this site using Internet Explorer? Well stop! Unless you are a flaggelant, there is no reason to continue beating yourself with that stick. Go to http://www.GetFirefox.com and get a browser with which you can be proud to be seen. It's easy. It's better. And the icons in the upper right corner of the screen right now will display properly. Plus, you can sleep at night knowing that you are no longer being led hook-in-nose by the Tyrant in Redmond. Don't be evil. Use Firefox instead.
Welcome to my id. Would you care for a bologna sandwich?
Posted on 2005-08-15 at 08:03
If you click this link, your productivity will crawl into the nearest corner and slit its wrists. You have been warned.
Laptop Details
Posted on 2005-08-15 at 08:02
Pentium M Dothan 725
Windows XP Home Service Pack 2 (This abomination will be exorcised and filled with the holy spirit of Ubuntu Linux as soon as I am able!)
512 RAM 400MHz
80GB Hard Drive, 5.4K RPM (Mercury 9300)
15.4" WXGA LCD Screen
Wireless Network Card Intel 2200 LF
CDRW/DVD DriveCombo
Total Price after shipping and tax: $759.14
A new laptop
Posted on 2005-08-15 at 08:01
My wife and I purchased a new Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop from their refurbished systems outlet (which is the ONLY way to get a Dell system. The one she uses now is owned by her employer and we wanted one we can call our own with certainty. It was cheap (~$700.00) and does what needs doing (basic office and Internet work). I'd have preferred a Monarch system or Alienware system, but Dell had the best price by way of the refurb outlet. No arguing with raw numbers. Alienware and Monarch produce better systems. My current main system is a Monarch. So is my wife's. My previous main system was an Alienware. These are good companies, but you pay a premium for the better build quality. That premium is worth every penny, but in this case, I had limited funds and wanted a laptop. Price, more than quality, was the deciding factor. It'll be good enough for what we do with it. I am pleased with the purchase.
Laptop
Posted on 2005-08-04 at 08:02
I gotta bring Denise's laptop to her work this morning. Apparently they are auditing all their equipment and need to scan the laptop barcode or some such junk. Lame. Too tired to do stuff early.
Guild Wars
Posted on 2005-07-26 at 08:01
This game is crack. I can't stop playing it. That's why there've been no entries for a few days. I'm working on being able to post to my blog remotely (not possible right now). If I get that working, it'll mean I can blog whenever/whereever the mood or idea strikes me.
System Soap Opera
Posted on 2005-06-29 at 08:01
When last we'd left our troubled hero, he'd been having some problems with his last system so he purchased a new one from Monarch Computers.
The Monarch system came and our handsome protagonist promptly installed Ubuntu Linux thereon. Though the install worked, the networking card did not. Undefeatably, he pressed onward, trying a different distribution of Linux on the new box. This time, Fedora Core 3 proved the better distro for the network card.
Alas, Fedora Core 3 was not up to the task of handling our hero's spiffy new video card, since it was so cool and new as to be considered alien technology. Though such a setback would discourage a lesser man to the point of suicide or mowing the lawn, it was not so with our man.
Fighting the valiant fight, he downloaded and installed Fedora Core 4. This proved a better choice. The video card, while still considered alien and cool to the newer distro, was better accepted. The network card still worked. The system was not Ubuntu (our hero's linux distro of choice) but it was usable for a short time while he fought his Ubuntu foes.
Knowing that the blog must go on, he opened the text editor and added the very entry upon which your eyes are now tranfixed and to which you current sit agog.
But all is not as well as it seems. Our hero's newest distro, Fedora Core 4, has proved itself better than Fedora Core 3, but the resolution on the system is still unacceptably hovering around 1024x768 instead of the required 1280x1024. What will out hero do? How will he rescue this system from lameness? Who will bother to have read this far? Tune in next blog to find out....
Macromedia Flash and x86_64
Posted on 2005-06-15 at 08:02
Macromedia should be ashamed. They have not yet compiled an x86_64 bit version of their popular Flash player. Why? Because 64 bit Windows just got released. Nevermind that 64 bit Linux has been out for a loooong time and forget that Macromedia claims (falsely given the evidence) to be a friend to the Free Software community. They are not. I cannot believe they cannot spend the trivial time it would take to recompile their own source code for a 64 bit platform. Ridiculous.
New computer!
Posted on 2005-06-02 at 08:01
I ordered a new system. AMD 64 bit 3700 CPU, 2 GB RAM, 75GB 10kRPM SATA HDD, Nvidia 6800 Extreme. Oh happy day!
Swampfest tomorrow
Posted on 2005-05-19 at 08:01
But it's not taking place in the swamp. :( We are going to Berry's becuase we couldn't rent the swamp shack in time. Oh well. It'll still be fun!
He makes my ears bleed
Posted on 2005-05-05 at 08:01
Bill Gates has spent US$150 Million Dollars on a new search engine project, for which they've chosen the screamingly ironic code name "Underdog".
So Tom, Why don't you blog as much as you used to?
Posted on 2005-04-07 at 08:02
My computer is intermittently screwing up and my client is getting more demanding. I'm not pleased with either of those problems and I aim to fix them both this year. Why "this year" and not "right away"? Because that's not the plan. The plan is throw as much money into the mortgage as possible (precluding fixing the first issue) until I am no longer working full time (which will happen when the baby comes back from China, precluding fixing the second issue).
More on the system
Posted on 2005-03-24 at 08:04
So, the system that was hosed boots now. I don't know why, but it just started working. It has serious motherboard issues. I'm gonna put up the money to replace it, but try to hold off on a replacement until next quarter, when I can buy a Dual Core chip. In the interim, I'll use this one and just hope it doesn't go down again.
Windows, the Next Generation
Posted on 2005-03-24 at 08:01
Microsoft has let out a few preview screenshots and details about their next generation OS, codenamed Longhorn. While I think it'll be a big improvement over the UI of XP, I'm still far more interested in the future of Gnome on Linux.
So, what's the deal, Tom?
Posted on 2005-03-20 at 08:01
OK. The blog has been stagnant since the end of February. Why? My main system crashed. Once I get things back to normal, my blogging will continue---despite the protests and threatening emails (and you know who you are, don't you, Pat Robertson!).
I only posted today because the system gave me a glimmer of life and I took advantage of it to get something up here. That's how dedicated I am to you people, but do I get thanks (and by 'thanks' I mean cash rewards)? Noooooo! Just criticisms and the occasional nude male pic (Bryan, if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, I'm not interested!).
It needed sayin'
Posted on 2005-02-26 at 08:04
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.
Posted on 2005-02-24 at 08:01
Gator (now Claria) executive, D. Reed Freeman, has been appointed---are you sitting down?---to the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee of the Department of Homeland Security. Well, what do you expect from an agency that hired its own Chief Privacy Officer from Doubleclick? Seriously. Yes, seriously. I feel safer already.
A lesson to be learned
Posted on 2005-02-15 at 08:01
In this photo there is a lesson to be learned about computer security. Always know your weakest links.
Coolness of her new system
Posted on 2005-02-09 at 08:02
Part of the problem Windows had, and part of what makes her computer screaming fast, is the fact that is a 64 bit Athlon with a SATA drive. So cool. So fast. I've got 64 bit Windows XP on one partition and 64 bit Fedora Linux on the other. Man, that box is so fast. I am jealous. Maybe I can wait til the dual core chips are out later this year. Then I can get a dual core 64 bit chip! That would make me happy.
Dual booting
Posted on 2005-02-09 at 08:01
I got Denise's new system dual booting finally. She needed a Windows partition for gaming and some financial software. Of course, it would have taken an hour or so if Windows had been as easy to install as Linux. Instead, I had all sorts of trouble with the Windows install. Took a couple of weeks to get all the drivers and directions to get it to install on this box (no, I'm not making this up, ask if you want details!). Linux, however, was a matter of putting the disk in and clicking enter a few times. 2 weeks versus 20 minutes. Hmmm. Is linux ready for the desktop? Well, if Windows is the high water mark for desktop usage, then it's beyond ready.
Windows
Posted on 2005-01-31 at 08:02
So, Denise keeps one Windows partition on her box for Microsoft Money and for games. On the new box I planned on puttng a small Windows partition for the same purposes. Windows is crap. Windows XP simply won't install. It errors out during the hardware detection phase, before ever even beginning the install phase. LAME!!! Then I found that Windows offereed an upgrade to XP 64 online. I figured, "hey, I have a valid XP disk. Maybe the upgrade will allow me to boot and install." Sure it will, but only if I purchase another version of Windows. wtf? I own the dam OS legally, but it won't install and to get a disk that will install they want me to pay...again?!?! Bill Gates can kiss my ass.
Just for the record, I was able to boot up and install two different distros of linux on that same box. No problems there. It's currently running a 64-bit version of Fedora Core 3. Ubuntu Linux works as well. I tested that with the live CD. Sweet stuff. Booted up and worked just fine.
Home wiring
Posted on 2005-01-31 at 08:01
So, I wasted a day trying to wiring my home for networking. Lame. Lame and useless. I got nowhere. I ended up calling the people that began the job (under the previous owner) and asked them for a quote to finish it. Life is too short to be doing these frustrating weekend projects!
Denise's new system
Posted on 2005-01-26 at 08:01
It's arrived. It's screaming fast. It's sitting unused. :( I need to get the network wired into that room (can you guess how my foray into wireless networking went?) and I need to get a small Windows partition on it, too. I have a valid Windows disk, but Microsoft, in their greed, has forbade me from installing that specific disk on that specific system. God, I hate them. The problem should be solved in a few days, I hope.
He's so dreamy!
Posted on 2005-01-19 at 08:01
This is a photo from a 1983 photospread in Teen Beat magazine featuring Bill Gates.
Two things of note. First, wtf is that look on his face?!? One can almost hear the photographer saying "Make love to the camera, Mr. Gates, Make LOVE to it!" And second, behind him, you should notice that there are two computers. One is a PC (probably with the Windows 1.0 sourcecode on the screen, and the other is an old Mac, so he has something to copy the sourcecode from! ;-)
The new box
Posted on 2005-01-18 at 08:01
Denise's old system died, so we ordered a new Monarch computer. It should get hear in a few days. Athlon64, 1GB RAM, and Fedora Core 3 preloaded all add up to a sweet system. I shall be appropriately jealous.
The Old Laptop
Posted on 2004-11-29 at 08:01
Denise and I are giving our old laptop to her brother and his girlfriend. I guess she needs something to write papers with for school. The laptop is ancient, but it'll work fine for papers and surfing the web. She'll be using Fedora Core 2 or 3. Windows would cost her a pretty penny, and it probably wouldn't run on the old laptop anyway. Fedora will run just fine if I set the desktop to XFce instead of Gnome. XFce is pretty light. I dig it.
The new laptop
Posted on 2004-11-28 at 08:03
It's a Dell Inspirion 1150 (not the best on the planet, but essentially free). It runs Fedora perfectly. It does what needs doing. I give it a solid B. Incidentally, Fedora Core 3 has installed flawlessly on 2 systems so far. I give that a solid A! In a world without limits, who needs Gates or Windows? ;-)
Dave's New Toy
Posted on 2004-10-13 at 08:03
So, Dave (Destructo Dave not HT Dave or Thievin' Dave) got his very own email account a couple of weeks ago. Now I get random blurbs from him every day that don't seem to follow a pattern or have any meaning. It's a new toy. I probably did the same when I first got my email account, lo, those many years ago. I'm glad he's easy to reach now, though. That is way cool.
Laszlo and the WeatherBlox example app
Posted on 2004-10-07 at 08:01
[WeatherBlox applicaiton removed from the blog because it stopped working right]
Laszlo is an Open Source XML-based alternative to Macromedia's Flex technology. It's a server-side XML markup language for creating dynamic javascript apps. Like Flex, it dynamically produces Flash files. Very cool stuff.
FAT Free
Posted on 2004-09-30 at 08:01
The Public Patent Foundation has managed to convince the USPTO to reject Microsoft's patent on FAT (the File Allocation Table file system). A success by any measure!
To fix or not to fix
Posted on 2004-09-13 at 08:01
Thanks to Will, I got some javascript that will fix the png graphic rendering issue that plague's Internet Explorer users for my menu (see upper right corner), but frankly I don't care enough about IE to bother implementing the fix. The issue, at heart, is that Microsoft hasn't seen fit to properly supportthe png standard so transparency in png files isn't respected when viewing a png in IE. If you use a real browser you won't have a problem, but for some reason people seem determined to only ise what Microsoft gives em. I'm not inclined to add extra javascript BS to my page to fix it. It's just a blog. If you're still using IE, I'm sure you're used to all sorts of web surfing problems (pop-ups much?) so a few bad graphics won't raise an eyebrow.
Internet Explorer Sucks Ass
Posted on 2004-09-09 at 08:01
If the menu icons don't look right, get a real browser
The Internet and Centralization
Posted on 2004-09-03 at 08:02
I am disturbed by recent attempts to centralize the Internet's services. Places that ban mail from servers that aren't fully qualified domain names require everyone to go to a provider for SMTP service. Likewise, Microsoft's new Sender-ID proposal to handle the spam problem makes ordinary people devalued in favor of certifying authorities. This is not what the Internet is about. The Internet is a community of peers, not a community of clients looking for servers. On the Internet every computer is and should remain a potential endpoint. Anyone can run a web server and the browser will not deny pages from a server without a DNS entry. Anyone can run an FTP server and the FTP client does not care whether the server has a domain name of just an IP address. They want to fix spam but they want to do it all wrong. There are better ways to fix the problem of spam that do not destroy the foundation of the Internet as a decentralized, peer-to-peer structure. Sender-ID is not a good idea, and neither is any plan that puts control of email in the hands of the centralized DNS system. Lame. Thankfully, Apache has denied Sender-ID any progress in its projects.
Salivating
Posted on 2004-09-02 at 08:03
I've been salivating over the latest crop of Alienware systems again today. Mmmmm, Dual GPU goodness....
Stagnation of Language
Posted on 2004-08-15 at 08:01
An article on German spelling reform makes an interesting comment:
"Languages change over time and they change in a number of different ways. [...] Thanks to the effectively universal use of a single word processing suite, English spelling is what Bill Gates says that it is."
May I recommend "Asshat the NarcoWeasel"
Posted on 2004-08-11 at 08:01
The BSA is soliciting names for it's new anti-copyright mascot.
The network
Posted on 2004-07-16 at 08:04
...Except for the network. Geez! Apparently, the builders built the room I plan on using as my home office to be all but unwirable! Ahhh! Work, dammit! I've set up a temporary office in what will be the guest bedroom while I try to get a jack wired in the office.
Wintel
Posted on 2004-06-09 at 08:03
Plugged in. Online
Jacked up. Fucked up.
T1 line-in. Media upchuck.
Mankind. MetalSoul.
Info Blackhole.
Lord Almighty,
Flood this rathole.
Byte-sized. ArkSafe.
Hi-Tech Street Waif
Who cares anyway?
Why should I pray?
Lead in. Lead out.
Have faith. Have doubt.
Talk loud. Don't shout.
Sine wave. Crest. Bough.
Christ when? Christ now!
Windows. Intel.
Dead soul. Oh well.
Hatred and sin.
Grow weak. Grow thin.
Love to hate me.
Ricki Lake me.
Let life linger
And infestate me.
-Tom Caudron
-Inspired by my job. Maybe I need a new one?
New terms
Posted on 2004-06-04 at 08:01
Heisenbug - A bug that disappears or alters its behavior when one attempts to probe or isolate it.
Schroedinbug - A design or implementation bug in a program that doesn't manifest until someone reading source or using the program in an unusual way notices that it never should have worked, at which point the program promptly stops working for everybody until fixed.
More on Freedom
Posted on 2004-05-17 at 08:01
I've talked about it before, but this article on Freedom is a perfect example of what I've been saying for a couple of years now. Open Source software is not about better software or cheaper software. It's about Freedom. It's that simple. Get it? Good.
We are just concerned about the informational ecosystem
Posted on 2004-05-10 at 08:02
Bullshit! Microsoft is pulling out it's oldest trick. Let piracy run until market coverage is complete, then stop it dead. They've seen market erosions everywhere this past year and suddenly they want to make it easy for people to pirate again. Sure they do.
Space Invaders 2.0
Posted on 2004-05-04 at 08:02
No. I'm not kidding. Apparently Taito, the creators of Space Invaders thought it was time to put out the next version. Don't expect it to be much like the original, though.
An open vulnerability database?
Posted on 2004-04-07 at 08:01
Seems like the Open Source Vulnerability Database could fill a niche need here by allowing people to report vulnerabilities, but not automatically posting them until a set time after the report date. Then having it automatically notify the vendor of the vulnerability. The vendor could ignore it (in which case after a set interval the issue would go public) or fix it and let it go public sooner. Just an idea.
The water's fine
Posted on 2004-03-25 at 08:01
I've been avoiding the eBay thing for a while, mostly due to never having done it and hearing some horror stories about rip offs, but having now done it once, I gotta say it's not so bad and if you use a credit card, the chance of rip off is pretty slim. In fact, the whol eBay bidding experience is kinda fun. Assuming last nights initial win doesn't go horribly awry, I will be doing more eBay bidding in the future.
I won!
Posted on 2004-03-24 at 08:03
I just won my first eBay auction! Sweet! $101 bucks for a Shure SM2 headset/mic that normally retails for $410. There may be something to this eBay thing.
Sniping on eBay
Posted on 2004-03-24 at 08:01
It's 11:46 at night and I'm sitting here at-the-ready looking to snipe a cool headset/mic from eBay. I want to be asleep. Oh well.
Bittorrent + RSS
Posted on 2004-03-16 at 08:01
I read an interesting article on "Broadcaching". This is an idea that, I believe, foreshadows the way things will be. As things stand, RSS is a simple Pull technology but that is simply not scalable enough in the long term for real data broadcasting. Neither is it's counterpart, Push technology. We need to explore better and more complex models to enable the killer networking apps of the future.
Fedora Core 1
Posted on 2004-03-14 at 08:02
I'm starting to really enjoy Fedora. I'm still a huge Gentoo fan, but Fedora is slowly winning me over. My system is just about where I want it now. Not sure what I'll do when Fedora Core 2 comes out soon, but I suspect I'll be tempted to upgrade.
The Sacking of Eden
Posted on 2004-03-13 at 08:01
Well, I did it. I wiped-and-reinstalled my system. I've reinstalled with Fedora Core 1 instead of Gentoo. No particular reason other than expediency, but I'm enjoying playing around with Fedora. Setting things up has kept me busy for a couple of days.
Hitachi-based TiVos?
Posted on 2004-03-10 at 08:03
Hitachi is coming out with a 400GB drive...and it spins at 7200rpm! Couple that with TiVo's recent claims about a new HiDef TiVo unit on the horizon and you may have a match made in heaven. Sweet!
RMS is right
Posted on 2004-03-10 at 08:02
I was chatting with a work buddy recently about Free Software and it's a real shame that the message is getting muddled. I don't care whether it is easier or even cheaper than the proprietary alternative. It's not about that. It's about Freedom. RMS was so damn far ahead of the rest of us in that insight. It's not about cost, it's about the knowledge that no one else exerts control of over you unduly.
VMWare Backups
Posted on 2004-03-10 at 08:01
In my recent rush to back up everything I have to do my wipe-n-reinstall, I screwed the pooch. Apparently, somewhere in the shell game I lost my VMWare files. I still have VMWare installed, but the Windows setup I used for work is gone. Better still, it's gone, the backup of it is gone and the redundant backup of it is gone. How did I manage that?!?! There is only one answer: I am a retard.
Still using the sullied machine
Posted on 2004-03-08 at 08:02
But I plan on correcting that as soon as I have free time. A reinstall is in my very near future. Maybe, just maybe, I can wait until Gnome 2.6 comes out later this month. That'd be ideal.
A Monk Moment
Posted on 2004-03-06 at 08:01
So, I decided after reading a bit about udev that I wanted it. I emerged it. Then, before rebooting, I happened across a forum entry that mentioned that udev will only work if you update to the 2.6 kernel and all sorts of other stuff, otherwise it'll just hose your system. Fuck! So now I fretted rebooting and I backed up all my stuff. I took forever, then I rebooted. Nothing. a small error on boot up but no other issues. The problem, though, is that now my system feels tainted. I know it's stupid, but it does. I need a wipe-n-reinstall to feel good about it again. I'm certifiable. Oh well.
DnD Radio
Posted on 2004-03-03 at 08:04
...And since I'm on the topic of starting my media empire, I still think it's a good idea to start webcasting our weekly DnD games. We are funny, dammit!
Technology News
Posted on 2004-03-03 at 08:03
On the topic of Pubic Access TV, the reason I had an interest was because I think it would be cool to run our own TechTV kind of show.
Laptops and Houses
Posted on 2004-02-24 at 08:03
I'm starting to get the itch to own a laptop. Don't need one, just want one. Gotta get over it. I'm saving money for the new house, which is a far more important purchase.
Router Upgrade
Posted on 2004-02-23 at 08:04
I just upgraded the firmware on my router and though I could be wrong it appears that it fixed the problem I was having with upload speeds from my web server. That would be nice! :-)