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Orb Grafitti is sometimes a conversation, sometimes a soapbox. I use Linux most often, and I write about that and related software frequently. I also have a day job working as a dogsbody for a small manufacturing firm here in the SF Bay Area. Also, Tom Syroid and I recently co-authored Caldera OpenLinux Secrets, unfortunately cancelled by the folks at $LARGE_PUBLISHER. I'm glad you've come to visit, and always happy to hear from you.
EMAIL - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so, I'll pay attention to your wishes.
Good morning and happy Monday. I know you've been looking forward to this day all weekend, just like Bob Dole keeps both eyes open for those Brittany Spears Pepsi ads... Did you SEE that last night??? I watched a total of about 10 minutes worth of Oscars last night, and the last stint ended with a Brittany pepsi ad that had her hip-hopping about several stages looking sexy and nubile, interspersed with shots of drop-jaw'd men watching televisions all across the country. Then, at the end, a dog by Bob Dole's side barks, Bob calms him, saying something like "Down, boy"... Mmmmm. Are they saying that Brittany and Pepsi could replace Viagra? ... Hmmmm.
Everyone is sure to take note that Dr. Keyboard's favorite actress, the Wide-Mouthed Frog (aka Julia Roberts) won for Best Actress in that Brockovitch thing. I think we all ought to congratulate Chris personally on his excellent taste in thespian's, don't you?
Well, having slogged through 50 emails, and with a bit of work yet remaining before I can get out of here, I'm going to pause this post until later today. In the interim, have a great day.
17:30 - Hey. How ya doin'? I hear that's the stellar new beer vendor advertising tagline. Hmmm. Personally, I think it needs a little work - there just isn't much room for branding in How ya doin'?. In other Television and movie related news, there was this exchange...
Subject: Frog Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 07:05:41PM +0200 From: chriswj Thanks for the mention in your diary. It's taken two mails for me to work out what's going on. Well, she's still an ugly wide-mouthed frog and, having seen Erin Brokovitch, I still know she's awide-mouthed frog. I'm off now to tell the Slashdot boys that you actually work for Microsoft. Regards Chris Ward-Johnson Dr Keyboard - Computing Answers You Can Understand http://www.drkeyboard.net Chateau Keyboard - Computing at the Eating Edge http://www.chateaukeyboard.com Magic Mouse - Computer Books for Children Even Grown-ups Can Understand http://www.magic-mouse.com
Sent: 26 March 2001 19:20 To: chriswj Subject: Re: Frog <hand covering mouth> Omygosh, I am *so* sorry. I had no idea you'd be offended. I'll pull the link when I get home tonight. .b
Too late, you're now officially a Microsoftie. Bwahahahahahahahaha
And that being the case, I'll leave the link in, thank you very much. And now for something completely different...
It used to be that I got just a little riled up when someone said or wrote something like "Linux isn't viable on the desktop". Now ... OK, I just get a little riled up. After all, I spend most of my working day in Linux. No, not server maintenance, not command line "klingon" as some might say, although I am fairly comfortable on that side of the fence. Nope, I use fat, bulky, high-memory requirement desktops like KDE 2.1 and Ximian Helix Gnome. It's a waste of perfectly good computing power, I know, but I like gee-gaws and gee-whiz-bangs sometimes. When I need to interface with an Excel spreadsheet, I pop open Gnumeric, which works like a champ, reading and writing all of the Excel I've thrown at it. Word is a little trickier - I can open most things in StarOffice, though I couldn't have done the book that way without taking a stand...
For image editing I use the Gimp. My main ftp client is my browser is my file manager is Konqueror, the Swiss Army tool of the KDE desktop. A big, big win, and by itself makes it worth going to KDE. For HTML and XML, I continue to stick with Bluefish, although Tom tells me I'd really enjoy Quanta, which is part of the KDE Office suite, these days. Mmmm, seems I have a pretty productive, viable desktop, if you ask me about it. I don't currently use any commercial Linux software, although I am not averse to doing so. What do you need to do that ONLY Windows can do for you. It's Stump Brian week - on the Linux desktop - Write and ask me about your favorite app.
Meantime, I have some laundry to fold, then dinner to get ready. Marcia's back at work (well, here, but on the phone, work-related, with just four business days left in the quarter). Do let's talk about viable desktops. I'd enjoy that. I'll hardly even gloat about the 90 days of uptime I have on my at-work desktop... See ya' later!
[bilbrey@oscar bilbrey]$ uptime 5:37pm up 89 days, 3:13, 5 users, load average: 1.99, 1.97, 1.91 [bilbrey@oscar bilbrey]$ who root tty1 Mar 2 08:00 bilbrey pts/0 Mar 14 15:21 bilbrey pts/2 Mar 22 09:39 bilbrey pts/3 Mar 26 10:26 bilbrey pts/4 Mar 26 17:37
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Good morning. Welcome to an early, early start on Tuesday morning. Marcia has a conference call in about 1/2 hour, so isn't riding her bike into the office. We hopped out of bed at about 5:15, and we'll be out the door in another few minutes. Oh, the truck? Mmmmm. The engine's here, and they're working on putting it in, as of yesterday midday. The Duane wouldn't promise anything, since everything they've previously said became false. I understand how he feels about that one. I still don't like it though, since we're now in our seventh week with them having the truck.
I'm getting lots of interesting responses out of the I Want Linux To challenge. This is a desktop apps question that popped up out of my mini-rant on the "viability" of the Linux desktop, yesterday evening Here's last night's crop, along with my answers. There's several new ones in my inbox from overnight, as well, but those aren't going to get showcased until this evening. Number one right now looks like a head-to-head race between Quicken and LookOut.
Subject: I want Linux to be able to... Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 05:51:11PM -0800 From: Mike Strock -- Quicken - Yes, I know about GnuCash. But I want to be able to download my transactions from my bank like Quicken does. -- Outlook - Yes, I know about Evolution and PMail. I want a really good email app. Evolution is good, but it is still beta, and unstable at that (most of the time). -- Client for a Windows 2000 Terminal Server. - Since I'm an admin for an NT network, this would be incredibly useful, and I haven't found it yet. Yes, I know about VNC, but Terminal Server just works better. ALthough I do use VNC on those machines that don't yet run Win2k Server. Thanks Brian. I enjoy your Daynotes pages.... Mike Strock
Hey, Mike. Yeah, quicken, the number one mickeysoft retention method. Scary, isn't it? GnuCash'll get there, one day soon. But don't ask me when - meantime Marcia runs the Quicken, on her MS box. LookOut - Hawk, spit. Be patient. Or try Mullberry. Tom seems happy with it? What is it that you MUST have? Is it the active x controls or the scripting host vulnerabilities? Or is it the bloated, incompatible with anything else PST files? Oh, OK, I ain't playing fair, and to be honest, it's not a bad tool when kept in it's place, but I am really happy with KMail. But then I don't ask a lot from a mail client. Terminal Server Client. Don't know that it'll ever be addressed. You've stumped me there. ding ding ding. <g> later, .brian
Subject: Linux Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 20:56:30 -0500 From: "harlanb" Hi Brian, I've been reading your Daynotes site for a couple of months now. I like it. I don't always understand some of the more technical stuff, my brain just doesn't always work enough. Linux apps: I really don't have a favorite one. I work with forms designed in MS-Word that just don't quite work with StarOffice. If you have any ideas, I would be glad to hear them. On a different note: based just on your writings, you remind me of a guy that I volunteer with, your pictures even look like him (to me at least). I find it uncanny sometimes. Anyways, just babbling. Thanks for writing. Harlan...
Hi, Harlan - Thanks for de-lurking... Glad to have you dropping by. Mmmmm. Yeah, the forms features of the MS suite are tough, because the formats are proprietary. Don't know that I have an answer for that one, and sure as snow in Saskatoon, when StarOffice (OpenOffice) manages to properly open a complex Win2K Word doc without problems, you can be sure a new format's on it's way from MS, because they don't want the competition. Remind me of this some other time, and I'll look into forms in Linux. Of course, you also need to retain compatibility with co-workers that would use Win anyway, right? Regarding that other person... Nope, just checked. I *am* me. He must be somebody elseTake it easy, .brian
Subject: I want Linux to be able to... Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 22:34:38 -0700 From: "John Doucette" How about Outlook, the big ugly Swiss Army knofe of PIMS. Not a show stopper for me but likely is for many. John
Yup. LookOut sure has it's adherents. Heck, I still use it at work in windows mode, though I don't really know why. I suppose it's because of the 4 years of email history I have there.
Subject: I want Linux to be able to... Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 18:10:21 -0800 From: Matt Beland OK, I'm cheating a bit. Sue me. Visio. Kivio shows promise, but A) it's commercial and B) it's beta. Quicken. GnuCash shows promise, but it's not there yet. And the last... Windows users want their desktop to protect them, to do things for them, and to be plug-and-play. Linux doesn't, won't, and isn't. And personally, I don't mind if it stays that way.Matt
Feh. Visualize the network in your head. Sketch it on the whiteboard for the PHB.Yeah. And commercial has it's place. So is Visio, anyway. GnuCash... All there is, is a "Real Soon Now" on online banking. This is the major windows retainer for a great number of Linux users. Bang on number one! And I agree, too much of a good thing and all that. Besides, every once in a while, I take a moment to run IceWM or BlackBox for a few days, just to enjoy the minimalist environment. It's rather like... virtual camping.
'Zo... Looks like an interesting conversation in development here. You're always welcome to chime in, on any topic. Meantime, I'd better strap on my shoes - Marcia's already on her cell to one of the sales reps, prepping for the conference call this morning. Have a lovely day, see you tonight!
12:30 - Sad news from a fellow Daynoter: Jan's dad died on Monday. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, my friend.
Marcia and I sent Jan email expressing our condolences, and our desire to help in any way possible, click here if you want to send him one of your own. Sorry to break into your day with sorrow, then bail, but I have to get back to work. Take care!
17:25 - More fun with Linux...
Subject: I want Linux to be able to... Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 13:36:42 +0200 From: Willem Jager Hi, Brian, Remember me? I've been busy a while, changing employers an all that - I no longer work at ECT, as you can see. This may be a little off topic, but what I really like in the Windows user interface is the ability to do anything with just the keyboard. For instance, when you get a message box with a nice, fat OK button, you can just hit the space bar to make it go away, instead of having to find your mouse, find where on your screen the pointer is hiding, move the pointer over to the OK button and *click* the button. Yeah, I know - its not a big deal, but old habits die hard, I am a >10 years Windows user and every second counts, you know? Anyway, when I started to use KDE this was something I stumbled over - less than perfect keyboard support for user interface control (it might be remedied now: I started way back with KDE 1.2 or so, did not check KDE 2.x yet). Any thoughts on that? Oh, favorite Windows app: Powerpoint, at the moment. I guess there is a good Linux alternative for that... Regards, Willem Jager
Hi, Willem - Longtime no hear, indeed! How's life at Larry's? Keyboard shortcuts - Mostly the KDE keyboard interface to WM behaviour is fairly similar to the Win9X style, but then, it's also fully configurable via the KControl app. Ditto with Gnome, so far as I can tell. Both major desktops have realized that they have to provide that level of comfort for transitioning users. Of course, "less than perfect" might just be different - After a while of using KDE with Linux, I generally find Windows to be less than perfect, but then so is Linux. These are tools, occasionally solutions, and I can use a screwdriver as a hammer with the best of them! Powerpoint - GPL or other "free": KPresenter, MagicPoint, ImPress, OpenOffice (StarOffice), Siag (maybe?), perhaps others I can't as easily locate... Commercial: ApplixWare, Corel Some of those, but not all, have some level of compatibility with PPT formatted files. --- Glad to hear from you. Take care, .brian
Subject: I want Linux to be able to... Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 07:31:51 -0800 From: "Ron Booker" Interface with my portable mp3 player. I dunno if someone's already written something, that'll do it (by the way, I have a Creative Nomad, if anyone's listening). If I had that I'd definitely commit myself to making the change, especially considering what happened this morning... Ron
Hi, Ron - Good to hear from you... http://nomadii.sourceforge.net may be interesting for you. So, what happened this morning? regards, .brian
Subject: I want Linux to be able to... Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 17:50:28 -0600 From: "Boss" I want Linux to be able to work for my father. He gets annoyed at the smallest thing in windows, and cannot comprehend how a computer can just stop doing something it has been doing for 3 years now. He is your basic techno illiterate user. He swears at least a dozen times when on the PC and blames everythign and everyone except M$. So, Brian, there you have it. I want Linux to be suitable for my father. I personally think it'll never happen. Thanks allot, Dwight It's here..... Bringing all that was geek back down to earth, http://www.geekworld.ca
Hi, Dwight. Mmmmm. Yeah, well, you could always sell him on "If you're going to swear at the machine anyway, wouldn't you rather be running something that doesn't make Bill Gates rich?" Really depends what he wants to do. I could set up a Linux box that my grandmother could use for simple text editing, web browsing and email, and she could cope just fine. Really it depends what your dad wants to accomplish with the box. Linux wouldn't crash on him as much as Win9X. Mmmm. Anyway, thanks for reading, and for joining in on the conversation. Heck, ask your father to write down what he wants to do with the computer, and we'll see what we can do for him... .b
Oh, and there's more, too. Especially a good thoughtful piece from JHR that I want to take some extra time with, that I might be coherent in my response... More on this topic tomorrow. Right now the voting is leaning towards Quicken as the single most indispensable Windows application. Doesn't that just make the robins up in Redmond sing???
And with that, I think I'll head into XML-land, and do some dev work on that tutorial. Hey, I bet you think I forgot about the Debian walkthrough, sitting there stranded with only two pages of content done out of 12? Nope, just paying work and a little relaxation time here and there get to come first. Meantime, y'all have a lovely evening...
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A little later this morning... I thought the alarm was set for 5:15, but I guess not. Welcome to Wednesday at Hovel Bilbrey (<g> Chateaus are reserved for English ex-pats living in France. Ooooh, it's time for the return of Sig of the moment... (thanks to Rafael from the SVLUG mailing list):
MS Windows, a digital form of Mad Cow Disease.
The more properly named Applications I need to run under Linux list continues to grow, with this entry from Jon Barrett:
From: "Jon Barrett" Subject: Linux must-haves Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 08:46:30 -0500 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 Subject: Linux must-haves Just posted this as part of a larger one over at RBT's Daynotes BBS. One of my killer apps has to be travel mapping-routing software. Web-based just doesn't cut it when you're on the roads and dealing with congestion. GIS I can get, points of interest and route calculation are a little harder. Jon Jon Barrett [email protected] Kensington, MD
Hi, Jon... Mmmm. I've never used that stuff. And for once, I see no obvious answers on Google or Freshmeat. Good job. If I come up with anything else on it, we'll come back to this... Thanks for joining the conversation, kind sir. regards, .brian
And with that little bit, I am flat out of time. Y'all have a lovely day.
18:21 - Evening. Busy, busy day, and it ain't over yet. But a few minutes spent with you is calming and refreshing for me. First off, here's some solutions to the Linux applications requests that we've seen here over the last couple of days...
Visio and other questions Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 06:38:22 GMT From: David Thorarinsson Hi Brian, Somebody mentioned Visio. Have you looked at Dia??? �It is not a drop-in replacement for Visio but I was surprised by its ease of use and flexibility. It is GPL and is found under many platforms, including Windows. Check it out at: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~alla/dia/dia.html I would also like to bring the HP Linux Inkjet driver project to your attention. There are many out there (myself included) that own HP inkjets so this is great news! http://hpinkjet.sourceforge.net I am working on throwing Windows out the Window for good at home but I still got a few things to sort out. My CD burner (HP 9110i) works without a glitch and so does my USB HP Deskjet 930C without the drivers mentioned above. What I got left is my USB Scanner (CanoScan N650U from Canon), that Linux registers but there are no drivers so I can't use it. I haven't had the time to look into that as of yet. I also got a TV card (Pinnacle Studio PCTV) that is giving me trouble. I probably don't have the latest drivers/programs so that shouldn't be an issue though. I do some videoediting as well and that I haven't looked into at all. Any ideas? I also got a question for you. The soundcard I got is the SoundBlaster Live. I use that frequently with headphones when listening to music. My problem is that I get a soft but irritating humming sound when there is no music. The sound gets louder when the harddrive runs so it seems like noise is making its way into the card and not being filtered out. I don't get this at all under Windows. Any ideas? Keep up the excellent work! /Dave
Hi, David - Thanks for dropping a line... Yes, I've used Dia in the past. I rather like it. Regarding the scanner, which kernel are you running? Looks like the 2.4 kernel offers support for HP usb scanners... /usr/src/linux/Documentation/usb/scanner.txt ... ************ This README addresses issues regarding how to configure the kernel to access a USB scanner. Although the driver was originally conceived for USB HP scanners, it's general enough so that it can be used with other scanners. ************ Sound card problem. Nope, I don't know the reason for the difference in sound behaviour between windows and linux. But if you've got induced hum on the line, it's possible that you've got a cheap cable connecting the audio out of the CD to the sound card. Have a look at your favorite vendor for a cable that's three wire (with a proper shield). That may help quite a bit. Alternatively, use the digital audio out instead of the analog audio out, should your CD player offer that. Much clearer (and that's the way I run my SB Live 5.1). later, .brian
Windoz Replacements Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 14:04:46 -0600 From: Tom Syroid Bri, 1) There is a Linux financials program around that does bank downloads... let me see (think, think, think)... ah yes: 2001-02-26 20:28:45 Announcement: GnuCash 1.5.3 release! Note: this is an unstable development release and may be buggy! Most users should probably stick to version 1.4.10 for day-to-day use. (All 1.5.x releases will be unstable/buggy. The next stable version will be 1.6.0). new XML file format better support for importing qifs from online banks improved checking register support for charts & graphs financial calculator new user account hierarchy wizard many UI improvements beta support for postgresql -- see src/engine/sql/README Note it's in beta, but it might be in stable form by now... 2) Mulberry has replaced Outlook for me (for over six months now), but I don't need calendaring as part of my email app. I also use it exclusively as an IMAP client, and leave all mail on my server. I honestly can't say how good Mulberry is as a POP client. 3) If your reader needs a terminal server *client*, Citrix/Metaframe ships with a very useable Unix/Linux client. I've used it and I was very impressed. If your reader means an open-source terminal server work-a-like, there ain't any -- yet. /tom
Now Tom... him I just called to kvetch for a bit. We're all really waiting for GnuCash to build in the hooks to work directly with the online banking and bill-pay features offered by our various institutions. Tom says that Intuit is being conservative, waiting for the Linux market segment size to grow enough to justify the porting effort. I say that Quicken can make the Linux market happen, by doing a port. It is on SO many people's short list of gotta-have applications - if they wait until GnuCash is fully online, then they'll be trapped between Linux and Microsoft Money... Oh, here's a link to the assorted *NIX Citrix clients. Now, without further ado, I give you the Warlock's response to my question...
The Linux Challenge Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 21:54:32 -0800 From: J H RICKETSON .b - I'm really encouraged by your use of Linux for day-to-day work, without resort to the CLI. This what we really need. Glad to hear it's going so well. My intent, also, is to gradually move over to Linux once I have something that will work on a really good SCSI Box. Then I can tell MikeySoft to take a flying, er, leap at a rolling donut! Three things are very important to me that I use in NT4: First, is Program Manager (progman.exe). That enables a neat array, by category, of all the apps that I use, and puts them only a double-click away. And ProgMan itself can be minimized to the taskbar, leaving my underlying and attractive desktop uncluttered by rank on rank of icons, a la W9x, when not in use. The second is Windows File Manager (winfile.exe). Far superior to Exploiter. It is an extremely versatile file wrangler. I doubt that Linux will ever be able to match it, due to the inherent deficiencies of its file system, with files seemingly spread at random whim across 13GB of file space, rather than subdivided among named logical partitions at the user's option. I must admit, Konqueror does yeoman service in an impossible situation. I applaud the authors. I don't think there is any way that such a file system can be made user-friendly, but Konqueror makes the best of a very poor situation. RASMON: (Rasmon.exe). This is a neat little 4-panel monitor with "LEDs" that monitor my connectivity and approximate transfer speed. Very important to me. It also handles dialing in and disconnecting with a right-click drop-down menu. For something that takes up minimal screen space, it really does a lot. Nothing else inherent in Windows that I hanker for. Certainly - a lot of third-party apps out there, but they're not the question here. Eventually, Gods willin' & the crik don't rise, there will be third-party apps aplenty for Linux, too. Shareware as well as GPLed, I hope. Keep up the good work, Brian. You & Dan are blazing a trail for The Rest of Us. I appreciate that. Much as I bitch about Linux's deficiencies, I applaud its strengths, too. I think I mentioned somewhere that the Mandrake 7.1 Install was far less trouble than W98 - and boots faster when installed. If no one complains - what incentive is there to fix the deficiencies, such as the Linux/SCSI install Catch-22? And that is a deficiency that InstallShield breezes right on by. Not everyone uses, or wants to use IDE with all its limitations (beginning with max 4 IDE devices, internal only, all in contention, in any one Box). Yet for me, buying an IDE HD is less trouble than the arcane drill required to - maybe - get an install on a SCSI box. Doubtful at best, given my microscopic skill with Klingon & the CLI. Yet by using IDE, I limit Linux's potential to a degree. I prefer as many options as possible. Regards, JHR --
My only worry, John, is that Linux will continue to disappoint you. Even easier to use and install, it flatly *isn't* Windows, much as some online journalists might have us all believe. For me, it can actually be a problem flipping back and forth between windows and KDE during my working day, because while it is, in many gross aspects (and several minor ones), very similar to the Redmond interface design, there are differences. These are much like the transition from CP/M to DOS, where a lot of things were the same, but I kept tripping on the differences. Program Manager. Well, if you don't like menus, then I could probably gin you up something LIKE program manager with a bit of arranging in a KDE or Gnome window, or by writing a custom Tcl/Tk program to mediate your interface to your common applications. File Manager. - There's two main contenders for me - Konqueror is an excellent GUI file manager, that also handles most network and ftp connectiviy seamlessly, once it's configured properly, but that's a tale for another time. On the (eeeeeeek) CLI, or at least in a terminal window is mc (Midnight Commander) a *great* Norton Commander clone. Rasmon. You can get similar (but different) functionality out of a couple of PPP client programs, like Kppp. Now, I really must fly - Dinner's awaiting my gentle hand to burn it to death...
And fly I must. I am seriously hungry, and I have a half-dozen pork chops, some rice and broccoli, and sourdough calling my name... Have a lovely evening!
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Well, good morning. The Linux applications / ease-of-use / whatever conversation continues to grow, which is a lot of fun. I'll get back into that again in a minute. First, I want to acknowledge that Matt Beland has returned to the land of posting, after a move, a new job, a small earthquake and connectivity problems got in the way of what's really important, being a Daynoter ... <g>! Matt's servers are up and running, and the new IP address is propogating around. If you go to the above link and still get the remaindered January post, then be patient temporarily while the world's nameservers catch up with reality - if you try to get there by the new IP, you can't see any content except the modified Apache test page.
Tom, Matt and I are all up and running on BIND 9.1.0, providing primary nameservice for ourselves, and secondary for each other. Since the others seem to be solidly up and running, I'll probably head over to Register.com this weekend and modify my nameserver data to point to us. Additionally, I need to change the contact email to my account over on Hydras - If there's a problem, then an out-of-band email address on the account is a very, very good thing to have, and I can get to that email via web, through any browser.
Now for some Linux mail...
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 02:38:32 -0800 (PST) From: Willem Jager Subject: Linux & Windows Brian, You sure stirred up a lot of interest on this subject! >From you response to JHR: "For me, it can actually be a problem flipping back and forth between windows and KDE during my working day, because while it is, in many gross aspects (and several minor ones), very similar to the Redmond interface design, there are differences." Yes, I know what you mean. It is easier to have two radically different user interfaces than two very similar ones with subtle differences. You always tend to trip over those little things, and in my experience you will always have some differences that you cannot customize away. So my advise to new Windows -> Linux converts would be to take the plunge and choose and learn a totally different user interface. It will be easier on your personal memory system, especially when you need to use both at the same time. In the long run, that is. Regards, Willem
Yup, and that was my actual (if horridly unstated) conclusion to the whole matter. Of course, there's one other little problem... In the same manner that security and utility are at two ends of one axis, I very much fear that ease-of-use and stability lie on the extremes of another axis. I really, really like the stability of Linux, and my only problems with stability revolve around either (1) my learning experiences (read stupid operator errors), or (2) testing new user interface enhancements which are not as stable, and lock X up solid. Now I know that that doesn't mean that Linux is hosed, but most people these days equate the UI with the OS. They wouldn't understand to ssh into the box from another system and restart X remotely, nor does that matter ... if X is hosed, your unsaved work is g o n e. This has happened only a couple of times, but it's quite annoying. Of course, it happens all the time to me in Windows, so who am I to complain.
And that's all for now, folks - it's time to hit the road for Marcia and I... Oh, the Duane called on his own hook yesterday, and said that maybe, just maybe, we could have our truck back today. Do YOU believe him? I'd rather just keep making payments and insuring it to sit in his repair bays - it's certainly safer there <>. Anyway, y'all have a lovely day. See you later!
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Good morning and Happy Friday. Yup, I am tired, and I am glad that this week is almost a wrap. Looking forward to a long day today as it's end of month, which is always a busy last minute production and shipping day...
A pair of progress items from last night. First, I got an example script that I developed for the tutorial up and running properly. That was definitely fun. It's a Tcl/Tk script that reads input from a configuration file, and dynamically creates an array of buttons in a Tk window for running the executables specified in the config. Not much really, but I do enjoy having any program, large or small, come out operating the way I saw it happening in my head.
Secondly, I finally got Progeny Debian up and running on the laptop. There are two significant pieces of news here - (A) Don't try this at home on your own laptop, kids. (B) What a nice, clean, correct job of installation!!! OK, a few details are in order...
I signed on and was accepted as an official Progeny tester last fall. I've downloaded, burned and tried to muck about with three Beta's, and now two RC's. I got the first couple of Betas to load easily on Grinch, and was bored with that. However, I was never successful at running on Gryphon. There's something about the combination of build in video and LCD that the Progeny installer just doesn't like. And they flat don't have a fallback textmode installer. Feh!
So yesterday I mucked about a bit with the "Linux Rescue" mode, following some directions to see if I could hand-build the first stage install, as the documentation said I could... nope. Must need to be more of an expert than I. Then I had the brilliant idea - this laptop has an extra VGA out - let's plug that into the Belkin and see if I can install using the big tube... Voila. Got the first stage install done on the big monitor, then completed using Gryphon's LCD display. Works mostly like a champ, properly detected and installed the CDRW, only failing is no sound. Ah well, now I can put in a positive report with just a couple of gotchas.
Marcia's reminding me that she wants to get going, so I'd best wrap this, and hit the road. Y'all have a great day. Later!
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Good morning! First, a bit of news about Gryphon the Acer Travelmate... Progeny Debian, which I just managed to successfully install on the little guy earlier this week, Thursday night, in fact, is now gone again. Yes, I know that's a Doug Adams sentence, and I like it, I just wish that I could end a sentence in "... is this." without further ado or explanation. Oh, right, Progeny. It works well enough, once you get past the installer hitches on laptop. Greg Lincoln (a guy who wants you to wipe your feet on his website???), really likes this distribution, and I suppose that I might too, if I took the time to live in it for a while. I've just got this latent frustration from pre-release after pre-release that I couldn't install properly, coloring my perception.
Positive notes, should you decide to try Progeny for yourself. The installer is very, very clean - asks only the most pertinent questions, and sets most other options to sane defaults. I don't see an expert (ask me every possible question) mode at all, though I am sure it exists somewhere or another, well hidden. Network came up, remote printer came up, X configured properly (once I got past the stage one boot problem with my laptop), one down note is that sound didn't config, but that's another tricky patch of road with Linux on laptops.
Oh, what next for Gryphon, you ask? Mandrake 8.0 Beta 2, which came out two weeks ago. Seems pretty nice to me, for the moment. More on that another time. Today, Marcia's off on a "Shop 'Til You Drop" mission with the rest of the coven from work. Yes, I am equating professional shopping and witchcraft - you gotta problem wit dat? My task today is to pretty much wrap the first draft of this DeveloperWorks Tcl/Tk tutorial, 'cause it goes for a couple rounds of editing, then I get it one last time prior to the due-date on the ninth.
Oh, hey, I've been meaning to say THANK YOU!!! There's a few more readers each month, and the numbers keep climbing - I'm flattered (and honestly, a bit stunned). This month should see me over 90K hits, about 17K page reads. Here are a couple of links showing this activity: here is the 12 month overview, and then here's the March stats page, updating every half hour (as ususal) right up through midnight... which reminds me, I need to make some log rollover script changes before tonight.
Of course, speaking of tonight, if you're a US reader, pay mind to the clocks. It's spring forward time. The government takes not only your money in April, but also an hour of precious sleep. And they don't return it until the fall, without interest. How like them! So set the clocks forward an hour before dropping off tonight, or sometime tomorrow, or use this all as an excuse to either be an hour late for work on Monday, or to start a call to secede from the Union.
On that note, it's time for me to whip up a bite to eat, then get to work. Maybe later. TTFN.
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Hullo. Not a lazy day, just another one with too much to do, too little time to do it in, and the non-aligned forces of fun vs. work providing me with their usual conflict... ::sigh::
There are times when it's seriously challenging to be cheery, or to maintain the pretence of cheeriness. I guess I am just hoping that in the end I can put it all down to being over-tired. Bear with me here, I intend to unload a little stress, because it's better for me that I let it go, than have it do the "boy turns into haggis" trick on me!
My biggest gripe remains that I exhausted myself with a full-time job plus full-time writing for nine months of last year, only to have our stinking book canceled days before the printing. Screw the money (especially since the pay vs. time equation displays an awesome amount of suckage), I put a lot of myself into that book, as did Tom. Most days this bothers me not at all, and others when it simply remains heart-wrenching. I really don't know why that keeps coming back around and whacking me upside the head. Each time, I think, that's gotta be it. I am over this now, it's not like I had any control over the situation. OTOH, we (Tom and I) do have control over the material. While it's problematic about how to sell the damn stuff, there's nothing that keeps us from giving it away. So, probably (remember that word, probably), we'll start formatting and posting bits of the book as soon as we can strip out dated bits that aren't as helpful as they might be. Give us a week or two, to see what we can work out.
I'm probably just in a funk. Fortunately, there are mitigating circumstances. First, there's my lovely Marcia. She sustains me when I need it (and vice versa), and the rest of the time she's just plain fun (not to mention gorgeous, and mine). Thanks, hon! Other things help too, like new websites that I am (or will be) reading on a fairly regular basis, from Ken Scott and Mat Lemmings to BWG and Kaycee. This is aside from my regular visits to the various Daynotes and Netwidows sites. Now if only I could find that winning Lottery ticket...
Guess not. That means that work calls. Other success stories today? Only had to replace one non-functionaly tomato plant, and upgraded the Cilantro representation in one of the herb boxes. Pictures tomorrow morning, thanks! Talk to you later, perhaps, or tomorrow for certain.
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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.
All Content Copyright © 1999-2001 Brian P. Bilbrey.