Boring Update

In the last post I told you that I was upgrading to Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon Beta release. The upgrade went fine. The only problem I have is that I don’t have the time to try it out. Maybe I should have upgraded my laptop instead since I use this one everyday.

Last time I said that I’ll be installing Gutsy on my three computers the 20th and 21st of October, this hasn’t changed. What I decided to change is I’ll be installing Kubuntu on my older computer and Ubuntu on my newer desktop computer and both on my laptop.

I guess this is it for this post, I know it was a boring post but you know what they say: “Life is a Bitch and so is Britney Spears.”

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

I have got decisions to make about my new laptop. The major decision to make is what operating system to use. I’ve been thinking of doing a dual booth XP, for my gaming needs, and a GNU/Linux OS. I might just get rid of XP completely and just do GNU/Linux. At this moment the complete removal of XP is what I am leaning towards.

As I stated before what OS to install? I am debating between Ubuntu, Kubuntu, LinuxMint and Debian. The Two in the lead are Ubuntu and Debian. I am very comfortable with Ubuntu, I have been using it for almost a year (Sept 11, 2006). Nothing really surprises me using Ubuntu now. I’d like to try Debian because it is there and I want to see what Ubuntu is based on. These are good enough reason for me.

Another thing I have to decide if I choose Ubuntu over Debian is do I do an install when I receive the computer or do I wait until Ubuntu 7.10 comes out in October? I know of a few compatibility issues with the Dell laptop I’ve ordered with Ubuntu 7.04, but from forums I’ve seen they can now be overcome. Ubuntu 7.10 will be ready for most of the new hardware, I hope.

I have installed Kubuntu 7.10 tribe 4 on a virtual machine to try it out and as we speak I am installing the KDE 4 beta to try this also. I just can’t wait. I feel like a child in a candy store.
Well that is it for today.

We Have Lift Off

Just to let you know that I have ordered a laptop from Dell yesterday. It’s not an Inspiron 1520 as previously noted but a Vostro 1500. It is basically the same machine except for cosmetics. The Inspiron is A “home” laptop and Vostro is a “business” laptop.

This is what I ordered:

Vostro 1500 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB), Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2, English

Vostro 1500	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)	[466-8717]
LCD Panel	15.4 in UltraSharp™ Wide Scrn XGA+LCD Display w/TrueLife™	[320-5544]
Memory	2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm	[311-7263]
Video Cards	256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT	[320-5559]
Hard Drive	160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive	[341-4886]
Operating System	Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2, English	[412-0998] [420-7291] [420-7291] [420-7311]
Integrated NIC and Modem	Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem	[430-0493]
TBU	Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.08	[410-0960]
Optical Drive	8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability, w/ Roxio Creator	[313-5297]
Sound Card	High Definition Audio 2.0	[313-4783]
Wireless Cards	IntelJ PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Wi-Fi Mini Card	[430-2409]
Camera	Integrated 2.0 mega pixel Web Camera	[320-5546]
Bundle	No Microsoft Office, English	[412-0379]
1st Software	No Anti-Virus/ Security Software	[410-1054]
Batteries	85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery	[312-0545]
Hardware Services	1 Year Return to Depot Service and Technical Support	[920-0797] [920-3140] [930-2960] [987-6829]
Online Data Storage	10GB for 1 Year Online Data Backup by Dell DataSafe	[420-7368] [987-7479]
Dell Support	DELL SUPPORT 3.4	[420-7180]
Dell Network Assistant	DELL NETWORK ASSISTANT 1.7	[420-7189]
Dell Support Centre	DELL SUPPORT CENTER 1.0	[420-7186]
Automated PC Tuneup	1 Year Dell Automated PC Tuneup	[420-7367] [960-8851]

The estimated shipping date is September 3 2007. I don’t think it will be shipped on that date since that is Labour Day in Canada, a holiday.

I’ve read a bunch of reviews on the Inspiron and a few on the Vostro. Most reviewers, that tried the machine, liked it. A few reviewers gave the laptop low marks because of delays in shipping. I give these reviewers a rating of 0.05 out of 10. When you review a machine review the machine not the company. I saw on cnet people that did not receive their laptop giving 1 out of 10 because the shipping date was pushed back. How the hell do you know how the laptop works without trying it. These reviewers should be brought behind the barn and shot and the buried in a shallow grave! Imagine Roger Ebert giving thumbs down to a movie he did not see because the theatre he was supposed to see it in had a power failure and could not show it. Good grief! Give me a f%#king break. Grow up why don’t you.

Enough of this ranting and raving, don’t you hate stupidity. I read a review on major appliances a few months back where the reviewer was giving a bad review on a 4 year old fridge because it broke down and the appliance company was not fixing it for them. The reviewer did not take an extended warranty and the refrigerator had a 1 year warranty. It is too bad the fridge stopped working get it fixed or buy a new one and get the f%@king extended warranty you cheap bastard!

Enough of the ranting and raving, for real this time. Boy that felt good. I guess I’ll stop it at that today because I don’t want to alienate to many people today.

p.s. My review on a HP Pavilion tx1220ca laptop: I give it 0 out of 10 because Staples did not have it in stock and the clerk told me on Tuesday that it would be in on Thursday and now it’s Saturday and they still haven’t received it yet. Am I a bastard or what? No more ranting for now.

Never Say Never

Last time I compared the time it took to install Ubuntu and PCLOS. This week I’ve installed XP in a computer for a friend. Am I a traitor to the GNU/Linux movement? I think not, I only did it for one reason: the cash, … and research. OK I did it for two reasons: the cash and research, … and friendship. Lets try that again, I only did it for three reasons: the cash, research and friendship, … and for fun. Four reasons: the cash, research, friendship and for fun.

I’ll state right here and now that I whole hardy support the GNU/Linux movement. I have gotten people to try Ubuntu but most people are like old dogs: you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. From my experience most people want to follow the path of least resistance. A greater number of people will watch The Discovery Channel and watch someone climb mount Everest and say that would be challenge and leave it at that. While a very small percentage would actually do it. I think I have used an overblown analogy because installing and using a GNU/Linux operating system is not as hard as climbing mount Everest. It is a hell of a lot easier and less preparation and it takes less time.

I digress lets get back to the point. I popped in the install disk in the laptop and turn the computer on. It was 6:45 pm. After a few minutes I was asked on which partition I wanted to install I deleted all partition and created one and chose that one. I then chose the NTFS format, not the quick and then I waited, and waited and waited. It took over 50 minutes just to format! I stopped checking the time. The installation took another 35 to 40 minutes since I did not notice when it started. When the computer restarts I install the drivers needed for the chip set, the display, the card reader, the modem, the sound card, the wireless, the web cam and the muse pad. With all the restarts this took between half an hour and 45 minutes, at this point time is flying by.

The next step is the installation of anti virus, anti adware/spyware. I also install firefox and upgrade the windows media to version 11. I install video codecs and ac3 (sound codec for movies). Windows update has been working all along these installation and now it tells me that I have to restart the computer and I need a break. It is now 9:40 pm, I don’t restart the computer I simply turn it off. I decide to continue the installation the following morning.

I wake up at 5:50 am turn on the computer and let window finish it’s automatic updates and go for a walk. I’m back at 6:45 am and the update is done, I have to restart the computer. It take me another hour to download and install Open Office, install plug ins for firefox, install iTunes. I’m almost done. The last thing I install is Nero for burning CDs and DVD’s. I forgot to install Picasa 2, Google Earth and Gimp. They’re now installed. The total time to install Windows XP and accompanying programs and tweaking is 4 hours and 17 minutes whilst it took me an hour and twelve minutes to be at the same point with Ubuntu. Now I did not calculate the Windows update I did this morning and all the drivers and programs I had downloaded before starting the install. With Ubuntu all was calculated. Now the myth that Windows is easier than GNU/Linux is easily dismissed when you install the operating system.

Cost wise, Ubuntu cost 75 cents for the CD it was burned on. Windows XP pro is $249.95, NOD32 is 39.95 and Nero is 69.92. All the other programs I installed are open source therefore free. $359.82 CAN instead of $0.75 my choice is Ubuntu. After looking at the cost of installing windows on a computer, I no longer look for reasons why people use peer to peer sites to avoid paying these ridiculous prices. The same amount of man hours were placed in creating free Open Source programs. The only difference I can see is that one is a labour of love and the other is how much can we get for this.

At the beginning of this post I said that one of the reasons I did this was for fun, I take that reason out, it was not fun it was hard work. I won’t be doing it for another long time. I think I learned my lesson, for now.

I have to go to work now. That is it for this time.

p.s. I would like to state that Windows users are not old dogs, it was only an analogy.

p.p.s I still have not gotten a new laptop. I know that I’ll be going with a Dell Inspiron 1520. I’ll let you know when I order it.

Back To The Future

I will tell you right now, PCLOS (PCLinuxOS) is a fine operating system. I know they will continue to make improvements but at the moment it is not the GNU/Linux distribution for me. So my computer is back to Kubuntu and I also installed Ubuntu so I can have my cake and eat it too. The main reason I switched back are as mentioned before, ktorrent crashes when I try to quit the program and no automatic updates. The ktorrent bug I could have lived with but the funny thing is when it crashed I could not get Firefox to start unless I logged of and then back in. Weird Hey?

I think I’ll be purchasing myself a new laptop. I have been debating between an Acer and a Dell. In the last 24 hours I have flip flopping from one to the other. At the moment I am writing this Dell is winning. Come back to see who will win, if any!

In the last post I mentioned I loved my iPod, and after posting it I realised that I did not mention getting it on this blog. I wrote about it on the other blog. Now you know that I own an iPod video 80 GB, why go nano when you can get video?

Back to my Ubuntu re-install on my computer. A few posts back I wrote about the installation time for PCLOS now lets compare them with Ubuntu. Ubuntu took 16 minutes and 47 seconds to install. PCLOS took 15 minutes and 10 seconds. PCLOS is ahead by 1 minute and 37 seconds. I waited 39 minutes and 33 seconds for my updates on Ubuntu whilst with PCLOS I had to wait 49 minutes and 34 seconds. Round two goes to Ubuntu. Too tweak my system I spent 16 minutes with Ubuntu and with PCLOS approximately 10 minutes. Round three goes to PCLOS. It took longer to set up Ubuntu because not all the multimedia codecs are installed but with PCLOS they are. The overall amount of time installing are, I’ll calculate it for you mathematically challenged, PCLOS 75 minutes and Ubuntu 72 minutes. Not a big difference overall. Now I have my automatic updates. ktorrent 2.2.1 still crashes when I quit the program but it does not affect any other programs. I guess that is why this version of ktorrent is not in the official repositories.

I guess that is it for this post, i see you next time.

Back On Track

Hey everybody! I guess by reading the previous post you know why I did not write in a long time. Now to bring you up to date with my progress with PCLOS(PCLinuxOS). I did not do a lot of work with in the last two weeks with all that happened. Everything works fine, mostly. Ktorrent crashed when I try to quit the program, I consider this a minor inconvenience since I am quitting the program when it crashes. What I find really annoying is the fact that there is no automatic update feature with
PCLOS. We have to do it manually. This is a problem PCLOS people! It should be fixed with the next release if PCLOS wants to play with the big boys.

I almost decided to thrash PCLOS and reinstall Kubuntu but I decided to keep at it. It basically does the same thing, but I am better acquainted with Kubuntu and Kubuntu has a automatic updating feature (Can play with the big boys).

On the computer that I have Ubuntu as an operating system, I have switched for Exaile as my music player to Rythmbox. I’ll stick with Rythmbox until I find something better.

I still love my iPod. Everybody that enjoys music should get one! I can do everything that Mac or Windows users can with the iPod. This is one of the reasons I switched from Exaile to Rythmbox, I prefer Rythmbox’s iPod options over Exaile.

Thank you for your time reading this today, and I hope you’ll come back soon.

Jean Francois Xavier Charles Bissonnnette Rest in Peace

At 9:04 July 18th my father pasted away. I will miss him. I love you Dad.

First Look at PCLinuxOS

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PCLinuxOs is the new star of the GNU/Linux world. A few weeks ago I decided to give it a try to see what all the hoopla was about. I tried to run it in VMWare virtual machine but I had too many issues. I then tried it in VirtualBox, another virtual machine, different issues. Finally one Monday, July 9^th, I did a regular install.

PCLinuxOS, like so many these days, is installed from a live cd. The experience is a pleasant one. I did not perused the live cd before installing, being well versed with GNU/Linux. This is a feature for those disillusioned Windows users or the adventurous. It is a fine way to try out a GNU/Linux distribution before taking the plunge for the first time.

When the disc boots up I answer a few questions to set the language, time, stuff like that. Once the desktop appears and I hear the KDE music I click on the install button. PCLinuxOs installs in an amazing 15 minutes and 10 seconds, wow that is fast, faster than me beloved Ubuntu. During the installation I am asked where to install, if you are new to GNU/Linux and you still want a security blanket use only a part of the hard drive and keep windows as a fall back OS. If you give GNU/Linux a chance and don’t give up easy you’ll never go back to windows. The last thing you’ll be asked is about grub, I recommend to OK at the recommended setting, 10 seconds.

After the reboot I look to see if there are updates because the ISO is over one month old and there has been some improvements to a few packages. No automatic updates? No I can’t find it, so I fire up synaptic and do a manual update. Now I know why it took only 15 minutes to install compared with about 20 minutes with Ubuntu. Ubuntu checks for updates at the end of the installation. This must be an oversight by the PCLinuxOS programmer and should be fixed by the next release.

The updates took 49 minutes and 24 minutes to download and install. I reboot the computer since I believe there is a new kernel build. One of the only times you have to reboot after installing something in GNU/Linux. Now I have a complete working OS with everything updated. You may say that 50 minutes for updates is just a bad as windows, well it is not! I don’t have to install burning software, got it, don’t need to install an anti virus program, don’t need it. With PCLinuxOS I have lots of multimedia codecs preinstalled so I don’t have to install them. The last time I installed XP it took me about three hours to be at the same point I am now with PCLinuxOS. So I have a bit less than 2 hours to set everything the way I like it.

The first thing I do is set up the screen resolution to 1680×1050 which was made easy. Everything I needed was in the Administration Center. I had to configure my monitor and then change the resolution. The next thing I wanted was eye candy. So, still in the Administration Center, I liked on the “Configure

3D Desktop Effects. What my video card does not support 3D, bull crap, it does. I change the video package from nv to the nvidia propriety package and tried again. It works. Unfortunately for PCLinuxOS the changing of the nvidia package should be done like Ubuntu, automatic. I hope that they change that for the next release.

One thing that PCLinuxOS got right and better than Ubuntu is the setting up of the printer. I clicked Set Up Printer and chose on this computer and it saw it right away I clicked next and then done and I was done.

I then change the wallpaper, added a panel on top, moved Icons installed gtkpod for the new Ipod and then i was done. It took me 75 minutes to install, update and modify PCLinuxOS for my tastes. Everything seems to work fine. I keep you updated in future posts.

That is it for this long post, it was way longer before I decided to edit it. I hope you did not find it boring and I also hope that I did not jump to much details for you tech heads. See ya later.

And the winner is…

In the last post I had asked for your help in deciding which desktop I should use on one of my machine. Because of reader apathy, only two vote, There was a tie between Red Martini and blue Martini. So I will be deciding on the desktop I’ll be using. Drum roll please, the winner is Red Martini.

On other news, I have upgraded my other computers RAM to 4 GB from 1GB. Wow I still haven’t put the computer through its pace to see the amelioration, if any. I will be updating you on the progress I am making with Fedora 7 and PCLinuxOS in the next posts, since I haven’t taken the time to work with them, The 4 GB RAM will help in running the virtual machine, that I will be using with Fedora and as I am writing this I am installing PCLinuxOS on one of my computers.

I guess this will be a short post. You know what they say “a short post is better than no post at all”. See you later.

Minty Fresh

Hey everybody, How are you all doing? I’m fine. No preamble today straight to business. I installed LinuxMint on one of my computers last Sunday and on Tuesday I re-installed Ubuntu. They are both the same operating system! Give me one hour at the most, and my Ubuntu computer would be exactly the same as LinuxMint. I knew that LinuxMint was based on Ubuntu but I did not realize that there weren’t a lot of difference between both. By the time I switched back to Ubuntu, My LinuxMint was looking and feeling like the Ubuntu it had replaced. So I asked myself, Norm why did we change? And my answer was to try something different. There is not enough different in LinuxMint to warrant the change from Ubuntu. Now if you do not use either and you felt adventurous you could switch to one or the other and you would be pleasantly surprised. I think that if you are trying Linux for the first time and are not and “expert” in the art of frigging around tweaking this and that, go with LinuxMint. I noticed that multimedia codecs were installed by default.

On other news I am trying the new and improved compiz-fusion on this machine and all I have to say is WOW! I know, you might be saying to yourself that eye candy is not useful at all for productivity, but, there is always a but, damn it shure looks perty.

Now to the million dollar question. Which of the following desktop should I use on my computer? I know that you know that I know that ultimately I’ll decide what goes on my computer but I’ll pretend that I give a rats ass what you think and maybe you can influence my decision one way or the other. So please vote, early and vote often.

That’s it, that’s all.

What No Pictures?

You’ve all been waiting on pins and needles for this post, haven’t you? Yeah right! Well guess what? When I decided to write two blogs with approximately 2 posts a week I did not think I would have to search far for something to write. How stupid was I? Don’t answer that, it’s just a rhetorical question.

My testing of the three other linux operating systems is not happening since I have technical problems with Fedora 7 on both VMWare and Virtualbox, the same goes with PCLinuxOS. LinuxMint works fine in both. One thing I found out is that I prefer working with the Gnome desktop over the KDE desktop. I might change my mind again once the KDE 4 series comes out later this year, I’ve been reading quite a bit on it lately and I can’t wait to try it out.

This morning when I’ll be going at work I’ll be using a new computer and OS. Last evening we’ve upgraded to XP from Windows 2000. I’ll probably be installing a Linux OS in one of the older computers sine I’ve been extolling the virtues of Linux for over a year and my boss wants to try it out.

About a month ago I tried sideload and two days ago my Locker was upgraded to unlimited storage. The great thing about it is you can listen to your favorite music on any computer, with a sound card and speakers that is. If you want a great Internet based music storage try it you’ll like it. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Not Much Happenning

I have been unfair towards the three operating systems (PCLinuxOS, LinuxMint & Fedora 2007) that I spoke of last week. I gave you my impression of them right after I installed them in a virtual machine. The reason I said I hated PCLinuxOS was not its fault but the virtual machine I was using. I am now trying it in another VM. I have no other impressions because I have been lolly gagging about this last week. I actually worked with Vista. It is not for me.

I also tried Joost beta the video on demand service, I hope they will have something for us Linux users. I also hope that they have more channels available.

I was reading a few articles about the beta version of the Safari 3.0 web browser. Guess what it is full of bugs. Apparently if what I read is correct: this is a failure for Apple. I think that the nay Sayers have forgotten that beta testing is used to work out bugs in a program before it is officially launched. So bugs in any beta programs is just as common as shit in a sewer!

I guess that’s it for this post see you next time

When You Tought It Was Safe…

Hi I’m back. After a 7 month hiatus I have decided to write some more. Why haven’t I written? What did I do with myself? How have I been? Where have I been? Are all questions you want me to answer I’m sure. There is not enough space on the Internet for me to answer all these questions, so I won’t.

All I’ll tell you is that I have a website that is in perpetual construction. It’s not even worth posting a link or even talking about it, so I’ll stop now. Also my father is not well and I have been taking it badly. I am hoping that maybe by writing about it will help me cope with it. He has been diagnosed with myelodysplasia. If you need to know more about this rare disease go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myelodysplastic_syndrome it will enlighten and depress you at the same time.

On other news I am still using Ubuntu and Kubuntu. I have installed in a virtual machine LinuxMint, PCLinuxOS and Fedora 7. I will experiment with them in the coming weeks and will tell you what I think of them. My first impressions are I like Mintlinux, Hate PClinuxOS and Fedora 7 is so so. Now these judgements are only having tried them for 15 minutes. It would not be fair of me if I didn’t give the operating system a fair shake, so I will try to use them with an open mind and give them the opportunity to show me why I should switch to them. On to other thing.

Last week I decided to start another blog (http://spurius.wordpress.com/) and ditch this one. The day after I wrote my first entry to the No Name Blog (http://spurius.wordpress.com/), I decide to see when I posted my last entry and I noticed that I had been using GNU/Linux for over a year. I read these entries and decided that I would spread myself thinly and maintain this blog and write the No Name Blog also (http://spurius.wordpress.com/). This one will basically stay as it was and the No Name Blog (http://spurius.wordpress.com/) would be something different. I think that I’ll try to be more creative with the No Name Blog (http://spurius.wordpress.com/). The No Name Blog (http://spurius.wordpress.com/) will have at least a post every week and this one I’ll try to post four times a month but not necessarily one a week, i.e. I might post twice in one week and not the following week.

I have not posted a picture this time but I will next time. That’s it for now. Remember to give blood and if you want to donate to the Aplastic Anemia and Myelodysplasia Association of Canada go to: http://www.aamac.ca/. You can find an association in you country by doing a search. Thank you very much.

Oh I almost forgot to mention that with No Name Blog (http://spurius.wordpress.com/) I decided to try wordpress. I might as well do like OS’s, try them all.

No Name Blog –> http://spurius.wordpress.com/

Now Introducing …

I decided to start a web site/page. A few months ago I had decided to start a web page. I wracked my brain to find a suitable name. I had decided on to go with “www.dirtymartini.ca”, I wanted a dot com site but it was already taken. Then I was trying to decide what to do on this site, this took way too long, is taking too long, since I have not decided yet. Today I decide to take the plunge and register the web site. Low and behold, I took too long to do it and somebody else has taken it. That is what happen because of procrastination, see earlier post.

I have now decided on another web address after deciding not to use www.logizomechanophobia.com/.ca. I was trying to find a word for the fear of Internet. Internet phobia is not cryptic enough. I then decided on www.phobophobia.ca, the fear of fear. No that won’t do. Let go on another tangent here, did you know that there is such a thing as fear of chopsticks? Yes the fear of chopsticks is Consecotaleophobia!

I must get back to my train of thought. How about this for a site address
www.hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.ca, too long a word to remember (fear of long words, a bit exaggerated). In the same vain as I found logizomechanophobia the fear of computer. I almost decided to go with this. But it was still too long. I continued to look at the phobia list ( http://phobialist.com/ ) until I was starting to get agateophobic (fear of insanity). I then decided to go with a Latin word. The word I decided on is sort of a private joke, that will not be if I continue writing in this over long post. (There is no word for fear of rambling on, and on, and on, and on, and on…) I decide to go with, drum roll: www.spurius.ca. Take out you Latin to English dictionaries out and find out what it means.

In a few days I’ll have activation notice from my web host and then I’ll build it and do something. I hope I’ll have something in mind for the site by then.

P.S. spurius, in its English and Spanish form, is a sobriquet I have used before on the Internet.

P.P.S. If you wondering about the picture, this week I got The Beatles Love CD/DVD audio, and I don’t know if this is sacrilegious to say I like it, it is different. Buy it now because Paul will need the money to pay off his future gold digging ex.

Night Out

Last evening I went to see Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. I really enjoyed it. It was offensive and parts of it was disgusting yet I was laughing the whole way through. You should all go and see it. It is a very intelligent comedy, a social commentary on the people of the “U S and A”.

Since the last time I posted something I reformatted my computer, I sort of lost me /home directory when I was fiddling about. I now know a chmod command that will make stuff disappear. I lost a whole bunch of data 26 Gigs worth, got most of it back. Other that that not much has been happening with me.

Back to Borat, The frat boys that are bringing the producer to court are showing us that the impressions of them we had in the movie are all true! They should stop their partying and start studying since they are not too bright. The first lesson I have for them is: if a producer starts feeding you with booze so that you can appear in a movie, be suspicious. Didn’t their parents tell them when they were young not to accept candy from a stranger?

Living On The Edge

Last week I updated my Kubuntu machines from 6.06 code name Dapper Drake to 6.10 code name Edgy Eft. There were a few hitches in the update process. According to a few posting that I have read in the last few days, if I didn’t use my computer the process would have gone with out any problems.

One of the posts got me thinking, when I used Windows for all my computing needs I was constantly worried about virus’, made sure that I was updating windows every time there was an update, scan everything I downloaded… All these usual nuisances. With Ubuntu/Kubuntu there are newer versions coming out every 6 months, The next one is 7.04 code name Feisty Fawn. With these major updates every 6 months, I wonder why most linux users don’t complain. For years they have been saying the reason they changed to linux is because of all the reasons I stated above, and yet when Ubuntu has a new distribution, hurray!! The reason I switched was because I like to try new stuff. I don’t think that I’ll switch back to Windows, but never say never. The only thing that I miss from Windows is playing games and utorrent. I know, I know, I can run utorrent using wine and I can play games using cedega but I install it I’ll have issues when I upgrade to Feisty Fawn.

That is my two cents worth for this time around. See ya later

Something Else to Try

Hello everybody. I am going straight to the point today, no pre-amble. Nothing witty before one of my rants. Nothing to make you laugh. Nothing to make you think. None of my pet peeves. Just straight to what I have to say, no banter, no interlude. No waste of time here.

I have just finished installing Windows Vista RC2 in VMWare on my computer. I have not had the time to play with it so I can’t really tell you what is new, except that it has gadgets, if you have apple or you downloaded a product from yahoo they used to be called widgets. It looks nice. Is it worth upgrading to it? I haven’t worked with it long enough to say. I’ll keep you posted. I must say though that I had to install it as an upgrade because I did want to spend hours on finding drivers that will work with it. Another thing about it is you will need an Ubercomputer to run it. As I said I am running it in VMWare and I have allocated 750 megs of RAM and it is sluggish when I try to do more than two things at the time. I have installed Windows Live OneCare as my protection, since my anti virus of choice, Kaspersky, does not work with it. Time will tell if it is worth it. ( http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/ )

On to another topic on I’ll probably try Mandriva Linux 2007. You can get a copy when you purchase a copy of Linux Magazine Issue#72 on sale now, or you could just download it, I found it on one of those pesky torrent sites.

I am now done, I have no more time to write, I have to go to work. See ya later.

Complete Failure

I have failed to install Mac OS X on my Kubuntu computer using VMWare. That is right I have failed. I haven’t given up, I have retreated and I am rounding up my troups and will attack later. In other words I have postponed trying it again after spending about 6 hours on it and not succeeding. Instead I installed FreeBSD an BSD Unix operating system ( http://www.freebsd.org/ ). I’ll work on that one until I am good at it. FreeBSD is sorta like linux, but it is not linux. I have a lot to learn yet before I become a master.

I am sure you have heard about the FireFox vulnerability that was on the Internet for 2 straight days. It was a hoax. I am informing you about this since the Internet news services were talking about this “vulnerability” and now that it is known as a hoax I only saw one story about it.

Symantic and McAfee are crying foul over MS vista having it’s own virus protection. I thing that these two companies are bottom feeders since they don’t want a secure operating system out there because they’ll be out of a job. I am siding with Microsoft on this issue.

That is it for now, See ya later

Too Many Stats!

I think I have been omitting some items you may find interesting. First off I have been talking about Windows and Linux. Most people already know about Windows since about 95% of all computer have a version of it installed. A bit less than 4% use MacOS, and guess what only .47% use linux, any form of linux. Can you believe that? Well I can, since most of us want to lead our lives with the least obstacles in our path, when we get a computer, windows is on it, why change it? My personal answer is: because I can. I know that after trying two linux flavors I will probably never go back to 100% Windows. I think that most people would find it hard to work with linux, because it is not the same as Windows. I think we shouldn’t knock each other choice of OS. I also think that we should try something else, you know what they say “variety is the spice of life”.

With that said here are a few links to free linux operating systems, so that if you choose too you can try it and decide for yourself. You can find SuSE at: http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org , Ubuntu at: http://www.ubuntu.com/ , Kubuntu at: http://www.kubuntu.org/ , Fedora at: http://fedora.redhat.com/ , and there are a lot more out there. I decided to link only to free distributions so that you can try it with no money going out of your pockets. Maybe one day Windows will loose a big chunk of its market share (I think it will) since security, for us users, doesn’t seem to be on its agenda. They say it is and they’ll prove it with Vista. Only time will tell. Once upon a time Internet Explorer had over 90% of the market share, now it is around 82% and Firefox did not exist until 2004 and 12% of us Internet surfers now use it. I believe that with better products out there everybody benefits.

For a future project I’ll be attempting to install a MacOS in Vmware so that I’ll have the ability to work with three OS’s, no discrimination here. I guess that is it for this time. See you all later.

A Window on Linux

Today I installed VMware on my Kubuntu box. For the layman this means I can run in a window another operating system. I installed Windows XP pro. I also installed an anti-virus program, Kaspersky, which also provides a firewall. I decided to try Kaspersky firewall instead of XP’s, and I installed Window Defender and Spybot – Search and Destroy to protect XP from spyware and adware. I didn’t miss using these electronic prophylactics to protect my computer from all the ITD’s (Internet Transmitted Disease). I almost forgot that it takes more time installing the protection than the protected. All this hassle so that I can try something new, am I a glutton for punishment? I guess I am.

I still don’t know what the picture I posted last time, I guess I’ll never know. I am scanning the virtual Windows as I am writing this and I already have 3 minor spyware threats. A fresh install, connect to the internet to download updates and spyware/adware protection and Windows is already letting stuff in the backdoor.

On “the Site” front, there is no front! Nothing has been done, that procrastination thing again (see the post titled Procrastination). The good new is that I am posting more often now. Well, maybe that is bad news.

That’s all I have for now, see ya.

Guess What?

Hello again. Back so soon you might say, I forgot to put something in the last blog entry. Can you guess what this picture is? One of my friends, which will remain nameless, email me this last Friday, and when I received it I asked Jacques “what is it?” If you can guess what it is I won’t be giving you fabulous prizes. I’ll be eternally grateful.

On the computing front I am now running Kubuntu. I prefer the KDE desktop over the Gnome desktop. (Please no hate mail).

Until next time, keep on thinking outside the box (I hate that f#!@ing expression). I think that the thinking outside the box expression was coined by an ENRON director when they were cooking the books to show they where making money. Did you know that Fortune named Enron “America’s Most Innovative Company” for six consecutive years. Now that “thinking outside the box”. (Here’s looking at you Paul, another friend that will remain nameless.)

See ya next time.

Just for Fun

Hi everybody! You did not have to wait a month or two for this blog entry. I decided that I would report on what I have been doing the last week, NOTHING! So I guess this is going to be short and sweet.

I am still working with the Ubuntu operating system, let me tell you those who like it, like it a lot. I am amazed how easy it is. I read everywhere that when changing from Windows to linux, SuSE was the way to go. I beg to differ Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Xubuntu are the way to go.

I guess that’s it for this time. Hopefully the next blog entry will have a link to my new site.

It’s Been a Long Time

When everybody thought it was over, its head pops back up and it roars “Hello, I’m back!” It’s been a long time, hopefully the wait was worth it? You tell me. I basically took the summer off of blogging. I actually took weeks off of computing! That is right, you read that correctly I turn off my computer for two straight weeks. Now that is amazing if I have to say so myself.

What is new with me you might ask yourself? Not much! that is why there were no blogs. I should not say that, there are new things and new projects in the works. You might not see another blog from me for another while.

I am now trying Ubuntu as a operating system, just installed it yesterday. I think I like it better than SuSE. Easier to install, takes about 15 minutes to install instead of one hour and a half with SuSE (I install both gnome and kde in SuSE). I install xgl and compiz on new machine and my desktop is now so freaky that sometimes it give me a headache, no I think the lack of sleep is giving me a headache. I should say that both are giving me a headache. Am I giving you a headache with this rambling about headaches? Ramble, ramble, Oooo my head hurts. Enough about headaches, mine is getting worst.

I’ve got a bit of work to do until it is perfect with me. I have decide to play around with a web site. Work on that project should start by the end of the year. Is that a long enough time for my perpetual procrastination? (see last blog). I will start working on the site by next weekend. I’ll tell you the name I chose in a future posting.

I guess I’ll let you go for now, since you all have headaches.

Procrastination

Procrastination: Why do it today, when you can put it off indefinitely? My definition of procrastination. That is why I have not posted my thoughts and comments for over a week. What have I been doing since the last time? I have been setting up the email service at work. I am also trying to create a stationary that is sent when we send email. It does not work. I will figure out what I am doing wrong and fix it. Now that’s thinking positively!

I am thinking of creating my on web page. I don’t know what to do. Today I have been thinking of domain names and all the one I want are taken. www.bobblehead.com, www.cheekymonkey.com, www.fasitious.com, www.noname.com etc. I thought of www.googlewastaken.com, but I don’t want to be sued. Why have a web page when I have blogger you might ask? I am asking myself the same question. To be (on the internet) or not to be (on the internet)? That is the question. An answer will be forthcoming . Remember my definition of procrastination above well I’m using it now.

I won’t be mentioning my life with SuSE this time around, because nothing has changed since the last time (that damn procrastination again!). I said I would add pictures to this blog I hope you like it. I actually thought of only putting pictures of food like last time, but I think it would have gotten old fast. Instead I’ll post pictures that have nothing to do with this blog.

Until next time keep on rocking in the free world.

I’m Back

Hello everybody! I’m back. I guess the first thing I should do is explain why I didn’t write anything in a long time. The answer is quite simple: I didn’t feel like it! Not really, I have been spending my free time at my parents helping them with the chores my father usually does but can’t because of the surgery. Today I’m am taking a day off from that. I’ll be doing chores of my own that I have been neglecting.

Enough about that I mention that I am now doing everything I use to do with XP with SuSE. I am actually thinking of reformating my computer again, because I don’t like the partitions I created when going to dual operating systems. I think I’ll keep on thinking about it for a while because as a stated above I don’t have a lot of free time anymore. The next time I format my computer I might go with Ubuntu instead of SuSE. Ubuntu’s desktop is Gnome instead of KDE, another thing to learn.

I’m thinking of adding picture to future entries so come back to view it, it might look better.

See >>>>>>>>>>>>
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Doesn’t that look good? Do you feel hungry? Huuummm, pork.

Next time I’ll put a picture that makes sense with what I write in the blog. This was a test, a test to provoke an emotional response.

I have just learned how to import pictures from my digital camera while using Linux. I’m telling you this is a blast! I now believe that most people should use an easy Linux distribution like SuSE instead of windows. Why shell out a small fortune for an operating system that crashes all the time, has serious security problems and is susceptible to viruses all the time when you can get a free, I’ll repeat FREE, operating system that is very robust and virtually immune to viruses and very secure. It a no brainer. Some people will say more there are more programs out there for windows, yes there is, but if you want to burn a CD or DVD with windows you’ll have to buy a program with Linux you don’t have to. If you want to play games you can use a program called wine and it work on Linux.

Enough of this rant, I just love SuSE and my computer. Keep on rocking and please come back, I’m begging you. Bye.

The Trek Continues

I am still at it. Not getting as piss off as a few days ago. I guess I am getting a hang of it, sort of. I finally got to play avi files (movies) on SuSE. I also installed picasa, a fine program from Google. I had it when I ran windows and was glad to find out I could get it for linux.

Last night I saw The DaVinci Code. It was not as dreadful as almost all the critics are making it to be. I think that the critics do not want to offend the religious fanatics out there who are so insecure in their believes, they don’t want anything out there that might temp them to leave the path to righteous. It’s entertainment, for goodness sakes!

Since the DaVinci Code came out, I decided to read Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco another time. Now this is a book that should be made in a movie. This books is a satire on all the Templars/Masons conspiracies. It isn’t an easy read but once it gets going it engulfs you and you can’t put it down until it lets go of you. Get it. Read It.

Now I have to get back at the book so let you go until next time.

Falling of the wagon

Good morning, or whatever time it is when you read this, to you all. Last Friday I fell off the wagon, I rebooted my computer with windows XP that I kept as a safety net, I did not change back to openSuSE until Sunday morning. Oh! How the mighty has fallen!

I am alright now I learned a few more tricks with a Linux operating system and to relieve my windows fixes I might get, I install Wine on computer. Wine is a program that allows Linux users to run windows programs. Amazing isn’t it? I thought so. Tomorrow is my day off so I’ll try a few new thing with Linux. I’ll keep you posted.

I already told you about my father’s condition, He cannot do any work for 3 months, so yesterday I went there to mow the lawn. I ended up doing a few more things for them. Today my back is killing me!

Gotta go

Baby Steps

This SuSE thing is fun, yet aggravating. I had a few issues with the programs that came with the SuSE package, like I couldn’t get kb3 the cd and dvd kreator to work, I fiddle wit it, now itworks like a charm. Everything that is installed does what it is designed to do and some do it perfectly while others are doing less than I want.

The area I am having most problems with are installations. Being used to windows, where everything is press a button and it works, it is supposed to anyway, with linux I have to make sure everything I need is already on the box before I install, this is a great inconvenience. Well I guess I’ll continue at it until I get better at it. You know what they say Rome wasn’t built in a day.

On a personal note, yesterday I bought a BBQ. Everybody says that it is a BBQ from star trek since it doesn’t look like a BBQ, I don’t care what they says, I needed a BBQ and I got a great deal, and I ate a delicious burger last evening :p

Gotta go get ready for work now, till next time keep on barbecuing.

Back At It

This is going to be a challenge. I am figuring out how to do things, with openSuSE, that I can do with an XP computer with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back. I have my Firefox plugins installed. I tried to erase a DVD-RW could not do it, tried to burn DVD data disc, could not. I’ll have to this until I learn hoe to do whatever needs doing. My new moto Never Give Up.

This post will be short and sweet since I want to play around with SuSE some more I’ll say bye to you all.

New Ball Game

The eagle has landed and openSuSE has been installed. Hip! Hip! Hourah! One of the first thing I learned after installing linux was that linux is not a “whole new ball of wax”, it’s not a ball its a cube and it’s not made of wax it’s some kind of plastic. In other words it’s not the same thing as windows.

It took me 1 hour to connect to the internet, I have an external ADSL modem. Before I gave up for the day I was trying to install plug ins for Firefox and could not find where it was installed. The filling system in a linux base is totally different than XP. Right now it make no sense to me. I have alot of things to learn and to figure out.

On a personal note, my father was released from the hospital yesterday. He’s been operated for an aortic aneurism. An aorte is usually 33mm in diameter and they operate when it swells to 40mm, my fathers was at an amazing 100mm. The surgeon says that he was lucky that it didn’t rupture. My father has gout and because of the surgery, he could not take his indocide so his foot is killing him he says that it is worse that the operation. I am very glad that he is alright. I love you dad.

Enough of “Adventures in medicine”. I won’t be playing with my computer this weekend since I’ll be going to my parents for the long weekend.

That’s it for now, til next time, bye.

Installing Windows

As I write this Windows XP is being install on my computer. My copy of XP is almost as old as I, so I have to install a bunch of updates. So while I am at work this is being done.

I changed my mind on how I’ll partition my HD, 50 GB for XP, 32 GB shared (FAT32) and the rest (158 GB) for openSUSE.

I guess I’ll get back to work, don’t tell my boss I’m doing this at work.

I have to go since my co worker, Paul is making fun of me and I have to defend my honour.

Ready, Set, Go!

I’m almost ready to do the switch over. I only have about 12 GB left to back up before I re-partition my HD. I have 240 GB to partition, I have decided to have a 32 GB FAT shared partition and the other 208 GB divided in two, one for Windows and the other for SUSE.

I’ll do the windows install first since I know what I am doing. I’ll leave the Linux install for a later install. I don’t think that I can install both tonight because it is getting late. Tomorrow I am working for 12 hours so I won’t be doing it then either. I guess I’ll do it monday or tuesday since I’ll be out of town for the weekend.

I’ll be installing a legal copy of XP home edition, for the last year and a half I was using a pirated corporate edition. I am getting tired of trying, and succeeding, of beating the genuine windows validation tool. I want to concentrate on Linux from now on.

That’s it for today, I’ll keep you posted

A beginning

Welcome to the blog.

The main purpose of this exercise is to describe to you my experience of switching over from a Windows XP computer to a OpenSUSE computer. I’ll also throw in some stuff happening in my life or comment on the news and such. Maybe a few jokes, maybe not, I haven’t decided yet. This will be a work in progress. I hope to inform and hopefully entertain you.

Within the next few days, maybe weeks, I’ll install OpenSUSE 10.1 on my computer. I expect to have a dual boot computer, I need a safety blanket, so I am going to keep Windows XP on another partition, just in case!

I have about 110 gigs of my hard drives filled up with files. Tonight I’ll start backing up this data, when I’m done I’ll do the dual install.

At this point I still haven’t decided if I’ll go with KDE or Gnome. Apparently switching from Windows is easier with KDE and switching from Apple is easier with Gnome. I don’t know if I’ll take the “easy” way or the more complicated route.

Well I guess that’s it for the first post, I hope that you the reader will keep coming back and see the progress or the mishaps I am making.