tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28222975269420178062024-03-13T09:38:34.518-07:00The Deep VoidUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-37100947954157166812011-12-06T15:23:00.000-08:002011-12-06T15:23:00.976-08:00Demon Wind<style type="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
-->
</style> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">December 1<sup>st </sup>2011, probably one of the worst Davis County East winds in my memory. Up all night waiting for one of the trees in the yard to fall. Hearing cracking and crushing sounds all night and debris smashing into the house. The house rumbling when each 90mph plus gust hit. Twice the back door opened despite being securely shut and locked, filling the basement with leaves. Ten hours of category 2 hurricane gusting winds (one gust measured 102mph). As daylight gradually revealed the new scenery, the real damage began to become apparent, a tree down in the neighbor's yard. The other neighbor's tree in our yard. More trees down as we watched. Helpless to even watch the news on TV without setting up an indoor antenna. During the storm I kept imagining our satellite dish hovering somewhere over Wendover, Utah, people pointing and taking pictures of the UFO.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Finally at about 12 noon the wind suddenly stopped.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">East winds in Davis County Utah are not uncommon. The first recorded was in 1855. The monster winds occurring on the average of about once every 2 years, some years 3 or 4 incidents and gaps of up to about 10 years. My mother told me that my grandfather used to walk the floor all night waiting for the East winds to cease. This specific storm tattered his old 150 year old barn like a bombed out World War II cathedral.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Right after the wind quit, we assessed the damage: one pine tree nearly stripped of all it's branches, three neighbor's trees hanging over our fences, the old TV antenna sheared off and no where in sight, the satellite dish pointing to that new Hades station, about seven lost shingles, a pile of debris 10 feet around and 5 feet high and a 2 foot hole under the corner eve big enough to let that obnoxious raccoon into the attic.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We fared good compared to some of our neighbors. The back yard neighbor lost 7 or 8 trees, some had their cars and houses crushed by trees. Most of the trees that fell were evergreens, beautiful spruces and trees that were 30 years old. Fences ripped up and carried a half mile away and shingles everywhere. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I spent the rest of the day fixing the roof.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">December 2<sup>nd</sup>, 2011, I wandered the neighborhood like a zombie, looking for my missing house parts, to no avail. But, I did meet some interesting people.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Saturday, December 3<sup>rd</sup>, did some clean-up work, fixed antennas and cut wood.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Sunday, December 4<sup>th</sup> was amazing. Many churches let out early, and tons of wonderful people went house to house collecting debris. An empty truck and trailer would show up and five minutes later it would be full. Approximately 50 people in this group that I found myself magnetically drawn into, neighbors that I hadn't seen in years and many from blocks away. My next door neighbor, RJ, wore out at least two chains on his saw. Some ladies brought a van with hot chocolate, cookies and rice crispy squares. That chocolate warmed me up and got me to a house a quarter mile away.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Very good people that day. Humanity at its best.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">‘I’d jump up in the wind, do a somersault and spin,’ -Bob Dylan</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-65256830757155150442011-11-28T18:59:00.000-08:002011-11-28T23:03:59.264-08:00Bad Modem...Bad!<style type="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
-->
</style> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Two weeks ago I started getting a multitude of disconnects to the internet (about 20 every hour). Talking with the CenturyLink technician, (using that title loosely). He tried to sell me the latest modem/router, of course I'm not going to buy another Craptiontec device. I doubted he had any knowledge of what was really going on. The day before, I had connected my computer directly to the modem and the internet, it worked just fine (as per Xmission technician). I wrongly assumed the old D-Link was the problem. The router was replaced with a Netgear N750 maximum performance, dual band, gigabit, superduper, over achieving internet device (model wndr4000). After installation I was once again suffering from the same disconnects. After much meditation and soul surfing geekdom, I found out that both modem and router thought that they were in charge, they both were issuing out IP addresses to all the computers on the system. The M1000 modem can be used as a crappy router and it thought that it was the boss, but the cool super router was to be my choice for the boss. Taking a pencil, tapping the modem and threatening, “I will disconnect you and throw you out in the street so that cars can turn you into a hundred pieces...you're not in charge!” Not giving up, I then hooked up the modem directly to my computer and using a paper clip I reset the modem to default through the tiny hole on the back (about 15 seconds). Once it finished its dancing routine of flashing lights, I went to its IP address 192.168.0.1, went to advanced setup only, DHCP settings and turned them off, then saved. Still in advanced settings, I then went to WAN settings, chose “RFC 1483 Transparent Bridging” then saved it. I unplugged the modem waiting thirty seconds (while waiting I connected my computer back into the router and also turned off the router (yes, it has an off/on button...cool). When the modem finished its chicken dance, I turned on the router. When it all was done I was a little bit worried because the amber internet light was still on the router. I disconnected my etherlink at my computer and restarted, up came the green light...yahoo (Trade mark infringement?)...no more disconnects for the last 20 hours. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Level me up geekdom! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-58046785140409463382011-11-09T11:52:00.000-08:002011-11-09T11:52:26.988-08:00Asteroid YU-55 Spotted<style type="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
-->
</style> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Last night I thought that I could try to get a glimpse of the near earth asteroid YU-55. First I downloaded the program Stellarium and determined the approximate location of the asteroid, in the lower corner of the constellation Pegasus, almost in a straight line with Jupiter and the moon just slightly lower. So I proceeded outside in a frosty 30 degree temperature. Right off, I could see it was going to be difficult, the moon was bright and washing out almost all the stars in the region. I lined up Jupiter with the moon and determined the area where I thought it would be, nothing not even the stars in the constellation Pegasus were showing. Not giving up despite sniffling and shivering I continued to search. Then suddenly...I sited it, moving fast towards the East. What a great experience I will always remember…only why did it have a red light on it and a flashing white light?</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-79842014519237411922011-10-17T19:27:00.000-07:002011-10-17T19:27:59.484-07:00Whistling In the Dark<style type="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
-->
</style> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This morning I was woken by a bird outside my window. So as I lay there listening no sound. I soon drifted off to sleep and once again I heard the bird and I again listened, no sound came from the bird. How did the bird know that I was listening? Or was I just having sound hallucinations. I drifted off two more times, finally I was awake enough to realize it was my own nose whistling. Previously, I was running the old wood chipper and still haven't got all the stuff out. I was ready to get out my shotgun and blow that dumb bird away. When it was me that needed the blow. Eat your heart out Bacall, I do know how to whistle.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-42129311438291216922011-05-22T11:12:00.000-07:002011-05-22T11:16:18.524-07:00Uncle Jimmy Has Been Rapturized<style type="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
-->
</style> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Uncle Jimmy is gone but I'm still here. The <b>Rapture</b> has taken my righteous Uncle Jimmy. He was here for the picnic, but disappeared sometime between the hot-dogs and Aunt Mabel's apple pie.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">He was considered to be a religious man, despite his gambling problem. He owed a bookie named Big Al quite a lot of money.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">He will be missed by us <b>Left Behind</b> individuals. Of course he will miss the new Harry Potter movie and would have liked the new health care plan because Uncle Jimmy kept falling out of trees and off of roofs, he was always breaking his legs.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If Jimmy were still around he might have ended up in some local land fill or rolled into a shallow grave in desert sands with his dead smiling intimidating pale face crushed in by large rock thrown from a huge man named Mucowsky alias Moose. His body raised and resurrected by hungry mange infested coyotes. His callus encrusted well gnawed thigh bone, later to be found by a sheep herder and hung above his camper wagon door as an example to the sheep to not stray too far from the flock.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Yes Uncle Jimmy was taken by the Rapture on May 21, 2011. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-51492941230749867312011-05-11T13:05:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:23:20.498-07:00Ubuntu Unity is Poo Poo<style type="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 0.79in }
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }
-->
</style> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Unity is Comiconical's new graphical interface replacing Gnome 2.3, sort of. When I first opened it up (defaulted to 640x480) I thought that I was looking at Windows 3.0. After fixing the video size. It still was weird looking. Some goofy dock on the left ( I love my desk-top clean) and window controls in the upper left status bar. The dock was loaded with LibreOffice and a couple of other items. I quickly figured out how to change the dock items to what I wanted using the the plus thingy in the dock. I'm not too impressed with it, giving me some ideas of new programs to install and hunting for my programs to run.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">None of my Compiz settings worked, I love to use cube with horizontal work spaces. What I got was a workspace icon in the dock. Activating cube broke Unity.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I also like a status bar at the bottom so I can quickly tell what windows are open not the little white arrows in the dock. While using Firefox sometimes a pop-up window gets past the blocker showing in the status bar. In Unity you have no idea that it is even there.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As for the window controls being in the top left bar, what are they thinking! Go to Compiz and check “Windows Decorations” that might help.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I lost my weather applet in the top bar which gave me nearly instant outside temperature and clicking gave me a satellite image of rain or snow. There is supposed to be a weather applet for Unity but it wasn't in my current repository.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Also it was pointed out that Firefox and Blender Render do not work together, yep, it's true.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Firefox 4 was installed by default, it is fast and I like it, but I had already previously installed it.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Banshee music player was installed, it might be a little better than Rhythmbox, I don't use it much anyway, except for Last-FM and none of them seem to work now anyway. I prefer a small Audacious player.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">LibreOffice is a good replacement for Open Office it's very similar and should be better supported with new updates.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There are ways to get the cube in Unity, for now it is a Hacker's Hassle. When I broke Unity with Compiz. I decided to log in to Ubuntu Classic. It was the same great Ubuntu as I'm used to, with great updates and Gnome 2.3. I was about ready to go to LinuxMint as it is using Gnome 2.3 in its new soon to be released distro. For now Ubuntu Classic will suffice. The future of Gnome 2.3 could be bad because Gnome has decided to end its 2.3 version. Gnome 3.0 is just as goofy as Unity with the stupid dock on the left. If I wanted a dock I would have added Docky or Awn. What GUI will be used in the future is a mystery to me and many others.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In the final, I'm sure Apple users really like the new Unity and Comiconical has the solution.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-70284524226049136982011-01-27T20:21:00.000-08:002011-01-27T20:21:12.593-08:00Book Review"Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10" <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/711901.Lone_Survivor"></a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/379290.Marcus_Luttrell">Marcus Luttrell</a><br />
<br />
My rating:5 of 5 stars<br />
<br />
The first half of the the book was real slow. Half way through...I was up till 03:00... had a hard time putting the book down. Exciting real life events, giving the reason for the slow start, a rough and tough training, useful at a later time. They should make this book a movie.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-9130156100141834532010-09-26T13:01:00.000-07:002010-09-26T13:01:56.669-07:00Mint OS 9.0<style type="text/css">
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }
</style> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mint OS 9.0 code name Isadora, origin Ireland.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I went with the Gnome version. In loading the Live Cd the logo came up quick and installation was an easy graphical environment. The installation fixed my previous grub problem.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mint has Internet packages Firefox, Thunderbird, Transmission (torrent), Xchat, Pigeon (messaging) and Gwibber (a social client which consumes most of your CPU power every time it checks your Twitter, etc, about every 10 minutes, which can crash your computer. Turn this bad boy off). Graphics came with Gimp. Open Office 3.2.0 was included for office. Sound & video came with Rhythmbox, Gnome Mplayer (movies) and Sound Recorder. There were no games installed, but the software manager had a multitude of games to install.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mint has an easy access menu. Update Manager 4.0.4, indicates the priority of updates. Annoyingly, it exits after a partial update. While running Synaptic update, I experienced a full lock-up . Not since my last Blue Screen of Death on windows has this happened to me on Linux. After a total of 4 lock-ups, I was starting to get worried. A search on the Internet revealed that something was going on with the download bar image and the number of times it checked download or something like that, supposedly being fixed in a future version. Mint is similar to PCLinuxOS, but a bit more appealing despite its crashing problem. It also has a large support base. I will give Mint 9.0 a 'B+' and maybe a 'Magically delicious'.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-46889291714420057232010-09-11T12:28:00.000-07:002010-09-11T12:28:13.473-07:00PCLinuxOS<style type="text/css">
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }
</style> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">PCLinuxOS or PCLOS is based on Mandrake. The Gnome version comes equipped with an ugly gray colored background. I attribute this to the fact that most PCLOS users are KDE desktoppers and don't really care what color Gnome is.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The OS has a larger repository than Debian and is not afraid to try newer programs.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The office programs consist of Abiword (dictionary and word processor), an icon for installing Open Office (by leaving off OO, it makes installation faster), gedit a smaller editor, glabels and evince (pdf viewer).</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The audio comes with Audacity, Rhythmbox, Xmms a multimedia player.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Video has Cheese a web cam application, MeTV (digital TV viewer), Totem (movie player), Gnome mplayer, Imagination DVD slide show maker, Brasero a CD/DVD disk burner and Gsopcast a streaming direct broadcast system (make your own radio programs). Got to try that someday.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">PCLOS comes with the usual games that come with Ubuntu.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The graphics programs are Gimp and Photo Frame.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Internet includes Firefox (with Flash already installed), gmail notifier, Pigeon, Thunderbird, Transmission, Xchat and Tucan ( a download/upload sharing program).</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">PCLOS also has a tweak program to get the most out of your machine.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Adding software and packages is a snap, this is what Linux is about, not some primitive terminal command (If I want old style, I'll get out my 8088. It still runs and I remember some of the DOS commands). In addition it uses Synaptic update manager, but the status reload is extremely slow.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Despite the fact that most PCLinuxOS users are KDE and get most of the support, the Gnome version is very good, I will give this OS an 'A-'.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-20412041271281461882010-08-09T19:24:00.000-07:002010-08-09T19:24:43.653-07:00Power Down <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8495956-power-down" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Power Down" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1278553414m/8495956.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8495956-power-down">Power Down</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4095460.Ben_Coes">Ben Coes</a><br />
<br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/116032013">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
<br />
<br />
A technical thriller with evil villains. Ben Coes exhibited expertise on a wide range of subjects combined in an exciting plot. In the tradition of Clancy. I really couldn't put the book down.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3315112-emery-strand">View all my reviews >></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-20306904990643197702010-07-26T12:19:00.000-07:002010-07-26T12:25:08.753-07:00Arch LinuxI was going to review a different distro, but when I installed Arch Linux it trashed my grub (got to remember to back it up next time).<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/TE3g8xXmN-I/AAAAAAAAAKM/TrMjW28aJWc/s1600/Arch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/TE3g8xXmN-I/AAAAAAAAAKM/TrMjW28aJWc/s320/Arch.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Installing Arch was the most difficult OS yet. I'm not the kind of guy to read instructions before I put things together, this was hard without them. After 8 attempts to partition the drive and set up the mounting points (because it didn't like my choices) I had to go with the defaults and I went for help on YouTube. Using step by step instructions from various videos (many thanks to James Manes for the best vid), I finally got the basic Arch Gnome installed (KDE has too much bloat and complicated menus). It contained only the bare necessities and I knew more had to be installed. All installations were done in terminal (using pacman) and editing (I used nano), from which I got in some good practice for learning Linux and Arch. After I installed gnome-extras (about 30 more packages), it started looking like all the other Gnome distros with a lot of cruft. Then I used a beginners guide at an Arch Linux site to getting my sound and some gnome tools. I removed Evolution (not all of it, can't remember which packages are safe to remove), then installed Thunderbird.<br />
<br />
Still, nowhere was there any graphical package managers. The internet listed some obsolete ones, but none of the them would even install using pacman. Many times I would see a package that I wanted installed and pacman couldn't find it in the repositories (core, extra, community). Maybe I spelled them wrong and pacman refused to recognized them. I really miss Synaptic or Mint graphical package managers; set up the basics, give me a good package manager and I'll do the rest. I like being able to browse a package manager, you never know what you'll find.<br />
<br />
I wouldn't install Arch in a small office with more than 3 computers; its not worth the time. Anyway I give this dog of an OS a 'C' for challenging, its fast and has a lot of rabid fans and support, but its Archcrap.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-91966601280339418982010-07-16T15:28:00.000-07:002010-07-16T15:34:36.020-07:00Debian LXDE OSI started this time with an old computer 450mhz Pentium II, 192 MB Ram and a 6.4 GB hard-drive. I decided to push this old thing to its limits. I installed Debian LXDE OS.<br />
<br />
LXDE Lightweight X-11 Desktop Environment is supposed to be lightweight enough to try on an old computer. Well it worked with an amazing 85 seconds to boot from the grub.<br />
<br />
Debian LXDE uses Open Office 2.4 and Leafpad for a smaller text editor.<br />
It has Iceweasel installed as a browser. A cheap version of Gimp and that is it.<br />
<br />
Not even a package or update manager. I could probably waste my time downloading all the good stuff through terminal commands. But if Linux designers want to get a bigger foothold on the operating system arena, they've got to do a better job in wooing Windows users away by using at least a package manager.<br />
<br />
I give Debian LXDE a 'D-' and only that high, because it worked on this old piece of crap computer.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-35715762590584348412010-07-12T12:45:00.000-07:002010-07-12T12:45:16.910-07:00Peppermint OSPeppermint, based on Ubuntu OS and Mint OS, installs fast and takes about half the disk space as other Linux operation systems. It boots up fast at about 20 secs from the Grub menu. It is a small operating system, because it depends on cloud computing. It uses Mint Update Manager 4.0.4 which is easy to use and understand, giving update priorities. Although update manager gives no total size of selected packages and has to be restarted after a partial update. <br />
<br />
<b>Cloud Computing</b><br />
Instead of a word processor, it uses Google Docs, Google Mail and Google Calendar.<br />
It uses an on-line drawing program called Pixlr which is very much like Photo Shop. It is deficient on textures and other filters, but it has a large selection of brushes. Trusting all my artwork and documents to be stored on-line is still an issue for me.<br />
It comes with on-line music, Last-FM, Pandora, The Cloud Player (which doesn't work) and Exaile (radio streams) also links to Hulu and Youtube.<br />
<br />
Peppermint lacks many packages, many of which can be added. Much of the administration can't be solved graphically and has to be solved in terminal. You could spend many hours fixing custom settings. If you want to experiment with cloud computing, try Peppermint OS. You can even try Peppermint as a live CD without installation. I give Peppermint a 'C+', maybe a later distro will be better.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-67096939066160290272010-07-07T12:22:00.000-07:002010-07-07T12:22:49.496-07:00Debian Gnome OSDebian Gnome 5.0 was installed from the same small install CD disk as Debian KDE. After installing I noticed that it looked too much like Windows 95, large icons, large tool bar and icons on the desktop (which I immediately tried to remove, unsuccessfully). Debian Gnome is similar to Ubuntu so moving about was familiar. It came equipped with Abiword and Open Office 2.4.1, to do word processing, but Open Office 3.0 or greater is needed to read MS Word 'docx' and other newer formats. Gimp which resembles Photo Shop is also added and Inkscape a vector graphics editor. The browser was Ice Weasel for which I couldn't get custom themes or to find where to update. One good thing included, was my favorite mail reader, Thunderbird instead of Ubuntu's favorite Evolution, (which can't be completely removed from Ubuntu). Most of the packages were outdated, I suppose for further testing. How long must a package be tested before being included in the final version?<br />
<br />
As in Debian KDE, I was once again struggling to obtain administration rights (It's my computer give me a break!). The power management kept turning on power saving on the monitor, where I wanted a screensaver only. Although many OS systems are based on Debian, I will still only give Debian Gnome a 'B', and like my Viking ancestors, I will be moving on to another village to pillage.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-91641108047822493032010-07-02T16:15:00.000-07:002010-07-02T16:15:15.076-07:00Debian KDE OSThe name Debian is a combination of its creator Ian and his wife Debbie. KDE is the graphical desktop version.<br />
<br />
Installation was done from a small install CD, with the computer connected to the Internet. When the installation menu came up, it was totally confusing. Moving in and out of various menus and trees, I finally found the KDE version. The first part of the installation was fast and then the Internet download for the rest of the OS took over 5 hours on my DSL at .2 MHz. Once installed I found an overwhelming number of items on the menus, many of which started with a 'K', it was also confusing. There were two browsers, one called Konqueror which was the same as the directory navigation. The other had a cool name called Ice Weasel, which was just an old version of Firefox with different icons.<br />
<br />
Working with it for about a week and removing many of the menu items, I still found the enormity a bit of an overkill. In addition I found Debian's administration policies too tight for MY computer, “If I can't open it, it doesn't belong to me”. It took me half an hour just to get sudo privileges (terminal administration rights). As for the ability to make wonderful changes to the desktop, KDE is the tops. The desktop looked great and had lots of gadgets. The CD ripper K3B is the best that I've used.<br />
<br />
Most KDE users are almost fanatical about their KDE desktops. Although, I found many of the same features on my Ubuntu Gnome (Gnome another graphical desktop version). I'd give KDE a 'B', it is fun. As for Debian...well wait for my review of the Gnome version first.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-73435159712842914812010-06-23T13:46:00.000-07:002010-06-23T13:46:13.833-07:00Alien AbductionSome say that I've lost my sense of humor others say that I'm not the same. My writers constipation is greater than the Hoover Dam. All the symptoms point to me being abducted by aliens, like Betty and Barney Hill, although I remember none of it. I found an electrical implant embedded under my skin. Dug it out using self trepanation with a dremel tool. It was hard as a rock...Oh, wait it is a rock...from some long forgotten head plant that I did in a motorcycle accident. Well anyway, I hope to do little bit more writing. Some of my writing will be about different operating systems (not self trepanation) on computers.<br />
<br />
In addition to my 2 other computers, I decided to create another box. I gathered up miscellaneous computer parts and junk that I had kicking around and built a Micron/Dell/Compaq. An Intel 733mhz PIII, with 512MB RAM and 2 hard drives. Each drive having a different operating system, which I plan on reviewing in future blogs. One of the operating systems is a cloud computing system and this blog is composed using Google Docs. Google Docs has a cloud dictionary and thesaurus, word counting, grade level and readability analysis. A real decent word processor.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-52227647533775608262010-06-19T23:45:00.000-07:002010-06-19T23:48:22.627-07:00Ubuntu OSI have been using Ubuntu Operating System for about 2 and half years now. If you are using Windows 98 or older, you should consider a newer OS. Ubuntu is a Linux based OS and is the most popular, at least for now. Even if you are using XP, you should think about a new OS. Most Linux distributions have more up to date drivers, features and software programs. Also it is great on-line, worrying about malware and viruses is minimal. Using Firefox on a Linux OS is no different than on Windows.<br /> <br />The biggest draw-back is what to do for Windows programs. There is a decent windows emulator called Wine, in which many programs will run. My favorite Windows program is Ancestral Quest, a genealogy program. Unfortunately, I can only view the people and families on AQ. If I make any changes or click on any web links it crashes when I exit the program.<br /><br />I haven't quite given up my XP machine. I use two machines with a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch. It allows me to jump back and forth between computers. Its especially good for surfing genealogy sites on my Ubuntu computer and jumping to my XP to compare family info. Listening to music on one and downloading on the other. I can do true multitasking without lagging down a single processor.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-83663809614504036742010-03-11T14:19:00.000-08:002010-03-11T14:20:35.790-08:00High Five?If only four fingers touch in a high-five, is it still a high-five?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-2826787502767645502009-06-10T19:45:00.000-07:002009-06-10T19:50:24.610-07:00DNA Proves Illegitimacy, A Family Portrait<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SjBwjioF0VI/AAAAAAAAAJc/c5lNYV4UVmM/s1600-h/FamilyPort.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 344px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SjBwjioF0VI/AAAAAAAAAJc/c5lNYV4UVmM/s400/FamilyPort.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345896513581470034" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-5880607444069644912009-05-13T19:15:00.000-07:002009-05-13T19:18:11.893-07:00Play Dead RoverSpirit rover is stuck in the Martian dirt:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090512-spirit-stuck.html">http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090512-spirit-stuck.html</a><br /><br />Well! Duh! you'd be stuck too if a Martian was beating on you.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-26048021430259630852009-04-27T19:19:00.001-07:002009-04-27T19:36:21.371-07:00Roll Over Rover<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SfZoiDaaDGI/AAAAAAAAAGU/S92EoKqtgSo/s1600-h/NasaRover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SfZoiDaaDGI/AAAAAAAAAGU/S92EoKqtgSo/s400/NasaRover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329562143280467042" border="0" /></a><br /><br />NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is back in working order, sort of. The robotic rover crawled last week for the first time in two weeks after its recent struggle with amnesia and rebooting. It plodded 5.6 feet toward its goal of about 500 feet away.<br /><br />Three times in the past two weeks, Spirit has failed to record data from a day's activity period into 128 megabytes of flash memory, (why so small, I carry a 1 gig in my pocket). That is where information is preserved even when power is off, such as when the rover naps to conserve power.<br /><br />Spirit has also suffered from failing to wake up for three consecutive communication sessions (I have the same problem). Engineers have not found any links among the three types of events.<br /><br />Spirit was given commands from NASA engineers who are still investigating the cause behind its recent glitches. The rover has moved its high-gain dish antenna and its camera mast, diagnostic activities used to check for any mechanical problems. Both components may be related to the reboots, the amnesia events, or the failure to wake up for three consecutive communication sessions weeks ago.<br /><br />Spirit's daily routine was changed in order to assist the diagnostic work if the rover experiences another failure to record data into flash memory.<br /><br />To conserve energy, Spirit has typically included a nap between its main activities for the day and the day's main downlink transmission of data to Earth. Data stored only in the rover's random-access memory (RAM), instead of in flash memory, is lost during the nap, so when Spirit has flash amnesia on that schedule, Spirit gives up no data from the activity interval. The new schedule puts the nap before the activity period (you couldn’t do that to kids). Even if there is a flash amnesia event, data from the activity would likely be available from RAM during the downlink.<br /><br />On the other side of Mars, Opportunity completed a drive of more than 1000 feet in the last week in its long distance trek toward a crater more than 20 times larger than the biggest it has visited so far.<br /><br />Spirit, and its twin Opportunity, finished their three-month prime mission on Mars five years ago and have kept operating through multiple mission extensions. They have already operated more than 20 times longer than their original primary task on Mars.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-34484476043568448712009-04-06T21:29:00.000-07:002009-04-06T23:02:14.035-07:00And Now I Shaw Take Over the Word<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SdrXrlgtTGI/AAAAAAAAADk/Jehp242-OvM/s1600-h/Kim2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 180px; height: 225px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SdrXrlgtTGI/AAAAAAAAADk/Jehp242-OvM/s400/Kim2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321803053495307362" border="0" /></a><br />North Korea thumbed their nose at the United States, Japan, South Korea and a plethora of United Nations resolutions, by launching a rocket on Sunday 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. North Korea said the Taepodong-2 was designed to hurl a satellite into space. The world views it as an effort to substantiate that NK can launch a nuclear warhead on a longer-range missile.<br /><br />The first stage fell into the Sea of Japan and the second stage into the Pacific. The third stage was most likely a big Fail. The North Korean satellite is now in a subaquatic orbit in the Pacific Ocean :)<br /><br />Kim Jong-il should not be underestimated though. North Korea’s missiles marketed in the international black market, are one of its few profitable exports. Iran, Syria, Pakistan and maybe even terrorists, have all been among North Korea's leading customers, not to mention the possibility of nuclear weapon propagation.<br /><br />Kind of creepy and reminds me of the sci-fi movie ‘Battle Beneath the Earth’ (1967). Rogue communist leaders use digging machines under major US cities where they plan to detonate nuclear bombs.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-91329288053270418362009-03-31T22:48:00.000-07:002009-03-31T22:59:34.555-07:00Asteroid to Strike Bay Area<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SdMCfq2j0aI/AAAAAAAAADc/mcZEOGuYyGQ/s1600-h/AsteroidAF60012.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 379px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SdMCfq2j0aI/AAAAAAAAADc/mcZEOGuYyGQ/s400/AsteroidAF60012.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319598327957016994" border="0" /></a><br /><br />University of Raleigh-Orlando FL- Asteroid AF-60012, due to strike the earth Wednesday somewhere near the San Francisco Bay area at about 4:30PM Pacific time. The asteroid measuring approximately 22 meters along its long axis, will have catastrophic results say astronomers at the UR Dome 2 Observatory. If the asteroid hits land, it will leave a crater as big as a football stadium. If it hits water, the resulting tsunami could be as high as 40 meters, causing much damage in the coastal regions. Citizens are urged to spend the day in fallout shelters on high ground or leave the area. It may strike hard enough to cause a chain reaction on the San Andreas fault line resulting in earthquakes along a 200-mile stretch.<br />“If you’re lucky enough to survive the impact and the tsunami, you may not survive the resulting earthquake,” stated Dr. Dumas of the observatory.<br />Dr. Dumas was asked if the asteroid might break up upon entering the atmosphere. “Not very likely, as this is one of the most dense asteroids in the solar system.”<br />Further details are forth coming.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-12597603259887929512009-03-14T21:41:00.000-07:002009-03-14T21:52:55.608-07:00One Man's Trash is Another Man's Trash<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SbyIXyVJGfI/AAAAAAAAADE/6Vx1FBvwca0/s1600-h/VGRefuse.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 295px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SbyIXyVJGfI/AAAAAAAAADE/6Vx1FBvwca0/s400/VGRefuse.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313271602619161074" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Space News</span><br />The crew of the space station had to take shelter in the emergency Soyuz TMA-13 lifeboat spacecraft to duck from a piece of trash. The piece, as big around as your baby finger was part of a spent motor used to send satellites into a higher geosynchronous orbit. It's only going to get worse as old space junk and new junk from the recent satellite collision spreads all around.<br /><br />Virgin Galactic has been making test flights of their WhiteKnightTwo mothership, which will take SpaceShipTwo to a high altitude, where they will separate and SpaceShipTwo will go even higher to a suborbital altitude. There are so many people wanting to go into space that if they could only turn an economy flight into a garbage collection run. Imagine paying to ride the back of the garbage truck.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Discovery</span><br />The Discovery space shuttle was delayed again, new date of launch is set for March 15. The shuttle has a badly needed part for the station urine recycler which keeps breaking. You don't suppose that one of the crew members is sabotaging it on purpose. A future French astronaut was quoted as saying, "I bring my own Perrier.” I am reminded of the movie 'Dark Star' where all the recycled food started tasting like chicken salad sandwich.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2822297526942017806.post-13158880357110890222009-03-08T16:04:00.000-07:002009-03-08T16:22:05.886-07:00Satellite My Fire<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SbRQGyZEt3I/AAAAAAAAAC8/Mn0y27keIZw/s1600-h/SwissSat.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 318px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_A3Uv942NhXI/SbRQGyZEt3I/AAAAAAAAAC8/Mn0y27keIZw/s400/SwissSat.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310957938113034098" border="0" /></a><br />The Kepler space telescope mission was finally launched on March 6, 2009, which had been delayed for more than two years. It is designed to search for earth-like planets in other solar systems with its giant digital camera, which also measures intensity of light and can detect a shadow from an earth sized planet passing in front of another star. Unlike most satellites which orbit around the earth, it will orbit in a solar orbit lagging 950 miles behind the earth.<br /><br />North Korea is slated to launch a satellite sometime near the ides of March or in April for Kim's birthday, a direct violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718. I knew that cockroach would try to get back in space.<br /><br />Iran launched its second satellite on February 2, 2009, the Omid communications satellite, which consisted of a walkie-talkie and a set of bongo drums wired directly to a 60's decoder ring.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the Chinese crashed one of their satellites on the surface of the moon, claiming to get experience in lunar landings. Chinese astronauts have also been going through drop conditioning at higher and higher heights.<br /><br />India has also entered the space race with a few of their own satellites, one of which is orbiting the moon.<br /><br />There is even a rumor of Jamaica putting up their own satellite with magnificent dreadlocks dangling from the heavens. Yeah mon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0