After playing with Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu Linux 9.04) for a few days I have come to the conclusion that I like it. A lot. As a matter of fact, I have only found one thing that I did not like and that was Brasero. Burning an CD .iso image took more than 15 minutes...much longer than I would have expected. For some strange reason, it thinks the DVD-ROM/CD burner in my nc6000 laptop is only 10x...
I have upgraded both my laptop and my desktop to 9.04 and both boot very quickly (the laptop boots in about 30 seconds). As a matter of fact, almost everything in 9.04 seems quicker: Open Office, Firefox, Nautilus...everything but Brasero. Maybe I can tweak it and make it faster some how.
I also appreciate having the eye candy actually work. I can now demo the full abilities of Compiz on a P4 machine with a Nvidia 5600 video card. Yes, I have 1.5 gigs of RAM but that was more for the Windows partition that the Linux one.
I have been singing the praises of Ubuntu for years and I think that with every release, it gets better and better. While Breezy Badger (one of the earlier releases) was pretty good, Jaunty is just awesome.
I have been using Ubuntu since late 2004, shortly after Warty Warthog (Ubuntu 4.10) was released. I had my share of ups and downs but continued to work with it until I installed Windows and Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) as a dual boot. The Linux partition was for me and the Windows side was for my wife who did not care to learn a new OS. At this point I was about 90% Linux and only used Windows on the odd occaision that I could not do something in Linux without a lot of heartache. That was over 3 years ago. Now I have slipped back to using Windows more (I still have some issues with my Garmin GPS and Linux playing nice together 100% of the time) but I still do most of my computing in Linux. I like the freedom it offers.
Well, anyhoo...if you are the experimental type and you have a spare PC lying around or are comfortable with dual boots, give Ubuntu Linux a try. I think you will like it.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Jaunty!
I took the time to upgrade my Linux install on the borrowed laptop (HP nc6000) the day before the official release (you know, beat the crowd). The upgrade went very smoothly and other than not having a complete set of repositories (I had the required but not the optional ones enabled) the upgrade went very well. It went well enough that I went ahead an upgraded the dual boot Pentium 4 desktop that I use (and Ubuntu runs great on it...even the eye candy) he next day.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the newer graphics on usplash. While eye candy is not normally a big deal, this looks a lot better than its predecessor, which looked much better than the one before it. All in all, usplash gets exponentially better each time Ubuntu releases an upgrade for the stellar OS.
The next thing I noticed was a default install booted from grub to login in less than 45 seconds. Once I tweaked it some, it came down to about 40 seconds. Not too shabby. Other than that there was not much to really notice. There are newer versions of tools and Open Office is at version 3.0 (a nice enhancement) and even a new tool or two (there is a clean up tool that I cannot place the name of at the moment...a crap cleaner-ish program for Linux).
When I took the time to upgrade my desktop install the next day, the first thing I noticed on it was all the eye candy worked much better than it did on the previous release. I am not sure if it was an Nvidia thing or not, but the banners of the windows left artifacts on the screen when Compiz was turned on with the last version of Ubuntu (Intrepid Ibex). Now with Jaunty, the animations are super smooth with the same video hardware (FX5600). Again, while eye candy is not a big deal normally, I got to giggling when I saw what I could do in Linux that you cannot do with Vista using the same hardware.
I managed to get a good, complete repository list and copied it over to both machines. Considerfing the sheer number of people updating their Ubuntu installs, it took a while but it was worth the wait. My machines are fully up to date with Ubuntu code. My laptop and dekstop both work well. The only thing that I could not get to work (so far) was a couple of .mov files from "The Animatrix" that were free downloads. Everything else played. To be honest I did not try them in VLC...I suspect it would play them.
As I continue testing I will keep you up to date.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the newer graphics on usplash. While eye candy is not normally a big deal, this looks a lot better than its predecessor, which looked much better than the one before it. All in all, usplash gets exponentially better each time Ubuntu releases an upgrade for the stellar OS.
The next thing I noticed was a default install booted from grub to login in less than 45 seconds. Once I tweaked it some, it came down to about 40 seconds. Not too shabby. Other than that there was not much to really notice. There are newer versions of tools and Open Office is at version 3.0 (a nice enhancement) and even a new tool or two (there is a clean up tool that I cannot place the name of at the moment...a crap cleaner-ish program for Linux).
When I took the time to upgrade my desktop install the next day, the first thing I noticed on it was all the eye candy worked much better than it did on the previous release. I am not sure if it was an Nvidia thing or not, but the banners of the windows left artifacts on the screen when Compiz was turned on with the last version of Ubuntu (Intrepid Ibex). Now with Jaunty, the animations are super smooth with the same video hardware (FX5600). Again, while eye candy is not a big deal normally, I got to giggling when I saw what I could do in Linux that you cannot do with Vista using the same hardware.
I managed to get a good, complete repository list and copied it over to both machines. Considerfing the sheer number of people updating their Ubuntu installs, it took a while but it was worth the wait. My machines are fully up to date with Ubuntu code. My laptop and dekstop both work well. The only thing that I could not get to work (so far) was a couple of .mov files from "The Animatrix" that were free downloads. Everything else played. To be honest I did not try them in VLC...I suspect it would play them.
As I continue testing I will keep you up to date.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
How Is This News?
I need to begin by saying that I never watch Larry King. I only saw this link and thought maybe there was a real story but as I skimmed it, I began to realize that this is just crap. Does Mr. King really think this young man is going to air dirty laundry on national TV and second, do we really need to read/see this? What kind of perv is King?
**Update** I am not the only one taking notice. And another.
**Update** I am not the only one taking notice. And another.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Health Update
My wife had her surgery on Wednesday and a lot of people from church showed up, not to mention my son and his fiancé. Lots of praise to God for the outpouring of love and support. We have had several visitors at home, many cards and e-mails, and a few meals delivered (all which have been great).
Overall the surgery went well. Technically it was out patient surgery (just like my back a few years ago) but since she was fully under (just like I was a few years ago) she had to come out from the anesthesia and use the bathroom before she could go home. That was a longer process than I had hoped, but she did get to go home that night. Of course we had to stop at Wal-Mart to get her prescriptions filled first. The lines were long and she had to wait in the van longer than I would have liked, but we finally made it home safe and sound. Once there, I got my wife into the house only after I let The Golden out since The Golden had not been out all day (we left at 10:30 AM and got home at 7:30-ish PM).
Once home, she pretty much headed straight to bed.
She is doing well so far. We ventured out on Friday to take Solder Boy and his fiancé to the airport so they could get back to their life. We grabbed dinner at Razzoo’s before and ran a couple of errands after the airport run but after that we just stayed home. I did not do much on Saturday (except clean) and catch on several episodes of various shows on Hulu.
Today is Easter and I am getting ready to go to church with my wife. I skipped Sunday School today and to be honest my bible reading has dropped off considerably. I am going through one of those “disconnected” phases again where I just don’t find a lot of joy in things. I guess it is mostly my fault for letting work get to me.
We are still not sure on the status of our vacation package. We have paid for it in full but since we had to cancel at the last minute, we are not sure if we will get any of it back, or if the owner will allow us to use another off season week to use the house. Anyway you look at it, I need a vacation. Badly.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Not My Standard Weekend
It has been a while since I have given the world, "an update" so I figured before I get any busier I had better do so...here she goes.
Work has been...well...work until last week when it was rather...boring. I was working 8-5 last week but thanx to my office mate being on call I could go home early almost every day. That was nice.
We received our first paycheck with the 5% pay cut last week and it was just about the amount I had expected it to be. President BHO's tax cut helped some but not enough. If I did not have to be on call I would get a second job.
Grass cutting season has arrived so I have started maintaining both ours and our neighbor's yard. I think this is the 7th year for me to do it and I have just now gone up on my rates which is kinda funny since other lawn care providers have cut their rate a tad. I always swim against the current.
The Golden has had a minor surgery to fix a spot on her muzzle she keeps messing with. Of course now she will not stop messing with the sutures but at least the will eventually heal.
I have not gone geocaching (well, any serious geocaching) in three weeks. I have picked up a few here and there but nothing like I used to. Work, the weather, and other events have kept me from going. Not that it is a bad thing, just that I am jonesing to get out and tromp around the woods again soon.
Last weekend the men at church met at "The Farm" (a big plot of land that is owned by one of the church member's fathers) for a weekend camping trip. While I did not pack to go camping, I did bring everything I needed. I also brought my geocaching stuff but due to a scheduling conflict, I ended up giving one of the church elders a ride home. We stopped off at one cache in a cemetery, just to give him an idea of what the past time was like, but it was the only one we grabbed. He was on a tight time table and I needed to get him home. I would have went out caching on Sunday but it was super windy and I just was not in the mood to fight it. Heck, it is even windy today...and cold! It has been that way (with the exception of Saturday) for a week or so.
While I will not go into detail, my wife has to have surgery on Wednesday. She had some tests ran on her Friday and the doc was a tad concerned with the results, hence the short notice for surgery. That in and of itself is not all that reassuring but when you take into consideration that we have already paid $900 towards a beach house for vacation that starts this coming Friday (a vacation that we can no longer take, I might add) it makes things even worse. I am not trivializing my wife's surgery by any means but we both were looking forward to next week. We have a call and an e-mail in to the owner of the beach house asking for some consideration but I have a very bad feeling the money is forfeit. God willing, he will allow us to go in the off season (this fall would be okay with me) with the money we have already paid him. If not, I am pretty sure we will not ever use his properties ever again.
Back to my wife...the short notice of the surgery and what it involves has her a bit concerned (me as well) but she is handling it better today than she was Sunday. She has a mild degree of discomfort which hopefully abate after the surgery heals. The good news is that our son should be coming to see us (he is flying in from PA) this week. He has asked to borrow my truck (since he is too young to rent a car) while he is here so in preparation I replaced the two read (and balding) tires on it. I still need to get shocks but that is going to have to wait until I see how much the surgery is going to be.
Other than all that, things are pretty normal. We are adjusting to having only one dog and The Golden appears to be finally adjusting as well, although she now follows my wife around the house all day long, never letting her out of sight.
Work has been...well...work until last week when it was rather...boring. I was working 8-5 last week but thanx to my office mate being on call I could go home early almost every day. That was nice.
We received our first paycheck with the 5% pay cut last week and it was just about the amount I had expected it to be. President BHO's tax cut helped some but not enough. If I did not have to be on call I would get a second job.
Grass cutting season has arrived so I have started maintaining both ours and our neighbor's yard. I think this is the 7th year for me to do it and I have just now gone up on my rates which is kinda funny since other lawn care providers have cut their rate a tad. I always swim against the current.
The Golden has had a minor surgery to fix a spot on her muzzle she keeps messing with. Of course now she will not stop messing with the sutures but at least the will eventually heal.
I have not gone geocaching (well, any serious geocaching) in three weeks. I have picked up a few here and there but nothing like I used to. Work, the weather, and other events have kept me from going. Not that it is a bad thing, just that I am jonesing to get out and tromp around the woods again soon.
Last weekend the men at church met at "The Farm" (a big plot of land that is owned by one of the church member's fathers) for a weekend camping trip. While I did not pack to go camping, I did bring everything I needed. I also brought my geocaching stuff but due to a scheduling conflict, I ended up giving one of the church elders a ride home. We stopped off at one cache in a cemetery, just to give him an idea of what the past time was like, but it was the only one we grabbed. He was on a tight time table and I needed to get him home. I would have went out caching on Sunday but it was super windy and I just was not in the mood to fight it. Heck, it is even windy today...and cold! It has been that way (with the exception of Saturday) for a week or so.
While I will not go into detail, my wife has to have surgery on Wednesday. She had some tests ran on her Friday and the doc was a tad concerned with the results, hence the short notice for surgery. That in and of itself is not all that reassuring but when you take into consideration that we have already paid $900 towards a beach house for vacation that starts this coming Friday (a vacation that we can no longer take, I might add) it makes things even worse. I am not trivializing my wife's surgery by any means but we both were looking forward to next week. We have a call and an e-mail in to the owner of the beach house asking for some consideration but I have a very bad feeling the money is forfeit. God willing, he will allow us to go in the off season (this fall would be okay with me) with the money we have already paid him. If not, I am pretty sure we will not ever use his properties ever again.
Back to my wife...the short notice of the surgery and what it involves has her a bit concerned (me as well) but she is handling it better today than she was Sunday. She has a mild degree of discomfort which hopefully abate after the surgery heals. The good news is that our son should be coming to see us (he is flying in from PA) this week. He has asked to borrow my truck (since he is too young to rent a car) while he is here so in preparation I replaced the two read (and balding) tires on it. I still need to get shocks but that is going to have to wait until I see how much the surgery is going to be.
Other than all that, things are pretty normal. We are adjusting to having only one dog and The Golden appears to be finally adjusting as well, although she now follows my wife around the house all day long, never letting her out of sight.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Giving Live Writer A Spin
I thought I would update Windoze and install the “Live” suite of tools to give them a shot. I am not a huge fan of MS, but some of the tools are okay.
I will try to keep y’all up to date on my findings.
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