Windows Sucks!

Published on May 19, 2012 in Rants and Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

I’m fixing a laptop for a friend of mine. It’s not something I have a lot of time for anymore, but this is a good friend, so I made an exception. Anyway, this box was completely fried, and of course, he didn’t have a recovery disk. So, after about 6 calls to India, we finally got one ordered, and it arrived yesterday. I got the Windows OS installed, and man was it SLOW! I could have installed Linux on 5 machines in the time it took to do 1 Windows install. Back to the story… After installing the OS and Dell specific drivers, I set him up a few open source apps to try to keep him away from the troublesome and very costly non-open apps that probably got him into trouble in the first place. First of all I deleted the Internet Explorer link from his panel, and replace it with Firefox. I also added Google Chrome so he could play around with it (I’ve been getting more fond of Chrome these days). I also added OpenOffice, and a few other odds and ends apps.

Here’s where it gets really frustrating. I was wrapping things up when I noticed an error message come up from his panel, and it said something like, “disk space low.” Well, I checked it out, and low and behold… the partitions were totally fricked up! Instead of giving me the option during install to do a clean format, it just installed it into one of the old partitions. I don’t even remember it letting me see a list of partitions during install! God, I have gotten so spoiled on Linux. Luckily though, I learned how to fix the problem without redoing the installation.

Afterwards, I noticed another error message that told me the system wasn’t protected with anti-virus software. I kind of giggled at the thought. “Anti-virus software,” …really? Such things are not even thought of in the Linux world. They’re unnecessary. Well, I went looking for a good, and free AV app, and I found one called ‘Avast.’ I installed it, and scanned the computer just to try it out. Much to my surprise, the thing already had 2 infected files! I hadn’t had this Windows box online for 3 hours, and it was already infected! I just have to say, there is no way in hell I would store any important data on such a volatile thing as a PC running the Windows OS. I wouldn’t even host my web sites and backup files with a company that runs Windows servers. I’m Apache, all the way!

That concludes my rant for the day, and remember… friends don’t let friends run Windows!

Biggest Loser, Domains from the Past, and facing down the Reaper

Published on May 16, 2012 in A Day in the Life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

I’ve had a pretty good day today. For starters, Both Denice and myself have managed to follow our raw vegan eating plan today. I feel beyond great. I have 28 days left to the final way-in for my work’s Biggest Loser competition. I’m behind, but I’m confident that if I can maintain things between now and then, I should be able to take the victory with ease. We’ll see.

In other news, I have had someone approach me to purchase my old domain name, ‘SpiritfX.com.’ It’s been a long time since I’ve used SpiritfX, so I think I am inclined to let it go. I do have a slight sentimental attachment to it, but it’s nothing I can’t get over if the price is right. Besides, that old domain name has a lot of bad karma for me surrounding it.

Also on the web front, I just finished a paid (yes, with actual money) web design job. It was a pretty simple site, but I think it came out well. Check it out if you’re so inclined… Charles M. Hall Alumni Association.

And on a sad note, yet another one of my close family members has been delivered a diagnosis of cancer, and a particularly nasty form of cancer at that. It’s such a dreaded disease. I’ve watched several friends over the years waste away with it. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Hopefully, this fate doesn’t await my realities… hopefully.

If you would like to pitch in to help find a cure for cancer, I am doing the Relay for Life. Any donations are greatly appreciated!

 

Precise Pangolin and, uh… Unity

Published on May 10, 2012 in Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I’ve been running Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) for about 3 months now. It was the first Ubuntu release that I’ve worked on that has the new Unity interface. I was initially disappointed. Most of the customization option had been either hidden or locked out, and I was not a happy camper. I played with the flashy new panel and search box for a while, but I wasn’t very impressed there either. So, I finally gave up and used the Gnome fall-back script and returned to something a little more familiar.

With the recent release of Precise LTS, I have found that the game has changed a little. Ubuntu has come up with something called the H.U.D. (Heads Up Display). I have yet to try it out, but supposedly it incorporates a translucent, terminal-like, search box that is capable of searching apps, app. menus, browser bookmarks/history, and the WAN. I think as soon as I get my next full backup done I’m going to give Precise a whirl.

Hope it doesn’t suck.

Midnight Rider rides again

Published on May 7, 2012 in A Day in the Life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This past Saturday I got to do a moon-lit ride in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. I arrived at Cade’s Cove around midnight. The loop road is eleven miles long and very hilly. The moon was magnificent. It felt so good in the misty mountain air, I would have dispatched with my clothes and rode the Cove au naturel, if there weren’t so many other riders out that is. It was an awesome experience, and well worth getting off my ass for. Thank you Denice for not letting me wuss out and stay home. I’ll post the video on the Youtube channel when I get it edited.

India… Breaking Bad?

Published on April 20, 2012 in In the News, Politics, Rants and Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Just a quick rant about India’s long-range missile test, global nuclear weapons proliferation, and our impending doom.

It’s time to take out the trash

Published on April 19, 2012 in In the News and Philosophy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

There was a jailbreak in a neighboring community today. Four inmates overpowered their handlers using improvised weapons and escaped. One deputy was seriously injured. Two of the four were quickly recaptured, but the more dangerous pair are sill on the run. If I remember correctly, one of the thugs was convicted of double homicide and the other is a convicted kidnapper. The incident has sparked a local debate here on the need for more prisons. Adding fuel to the fire, the two thugs were moved from a high-security facility due to overcrowding, into the lesser-security county jail were they escaped.

The United States of America has the highest prison population of all the industrialized nations, bar none. Most of the prisons are at or exceeding their capacity. You would think that in such a dire situation there would be an outcry to study and determine exactly why there seem to be so many more criminals in this country, and then maybe figure out a way to remove the conditions that are responsible for creating such depraved individuals. No, that’s not how we roll here in the good old USA. If there are more thugs, rapists, and drug dealers… then the obvious answer is to build bigger and better prisons. Is this honestly the best answer to the problem that we can come up with? That’s sort of like letting the trash pile up in your home, and then when the flies get to numerous to handle… you go and invest is a box of fly-swatters.

When human beings have access to the necessities of life, they seldom engage in such violent and destructive activities. Only when people are under the stress of poverty and lack do they become violent, and only then does that violence breed fear and violence in others.

Maybe instead of locking some more people up (because that has worked so well), we should perhaps take out the trash. I think we will find that if we do so, the flies will take care of themselves.

Should have got a better camera

Published on April 17, 2012 in A Day in the Life and Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I’ve been using my new camcorder, the Sony Bloggie Duo for about a week now, and I believe I have made a mistake in getting it. I love Sony, and for the most part, I am very satisfied with the Sony products I have used. However, the Sony Bloggie has been somewhat of a disappointment. It has a lot of cool feature that my antiquated Flip did not, but the audio sucks. It blows! The video is pretty good, but if the audio isn’t … it’s useless. I’m going to try to cleanup the audio with my video editor tomorrow. Hopefully that will work until I get acquire a higher end camera.

Shit I’ve Learned: You’re Not Going to Survive [video]

Published on April 17, 2012 in Philosophy and Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

With the increasing popularity of shows like ‘Doomsday Preppers,’ some people are becoming obsessed with their own personal survival. Unfortunately, you are not going to survive. Nobody’s getting out of here alive, but that’s not all bad news.

Don’t Fear the Reaper [video]

Published on April 17, 2012 in Philosophy, Religion and Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

My neighbors had a funeral in their living room yesterday. It was kind of weird, and got me thinking about my own mortality.

Money breeds crime: ‘Give people what they need’ (RT interview with Peter Joseph) [video]

Published on April 13, 2012 in Philosophy, Politics, Science and Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I just watched this interview of Peter Joseph, creator of the Zeitgeist film series, by Russia Today. Peter talks about the current socio-economic conditions, the inherent flaws in our monetary system, and possible solutions to save our sorry asses…