zen.org Communal Weblog

Perhaps to Pat’s chagrin, I will make another Ubuntu post. Like I did last April, I tried Kubuntu on my PowerPC at work. It didn’t report the audio card not working. If the sound card worked or not I don’t know, the fan got too loud. Also, the mouse didn’t work, I don’t know if the mouse worked with the beta version, I was too worried about turning it off.

Inspired by Sven’s recent post and some messages on ILUG, I replaced SuSE 10.0 on my Sony Vaio VGN-TX1XP laptop with the Desktop copy of the new Ubuntu 6.06 “Dapper” release. (I tried to install an earlier version of Ubuntu in the past, and hoped this would go more smoothly. Bingo, it was great.)

After doing a full backup of my system (aka rsync -vaRx / brendan@otherbox:/backup/kaylee-20060604/), It took maybe 5 minutes from booting off the CD to having the installation process get underway; you start by just double-clicking the “Install” image on the desktop.

The whole install took about 20 minutes. A reboot at the end and it came back up as a fully functional system.

So far, so good, tho I’m a KDE user normally so its GNOME default will take some getting used to. Of particular interest so far:

• Ubuntu uses apt-get instead of rpm for packages;
• the GNOME Network Manager makes it really easy to switch between Ethernet and wireless;
• X automatically goes to 1366×768, the not-so-normal size of the screen on the TX series of laptops;
• hibernation is quite fast—the same under SuSE took much more time;
• even more amazing: suspending (aka standby and its glowing orange power button) works (well, almost)! I right-clicked on the Power Manager battery icon at the top, and in its preferences I selected it to use suspend when the lid closes. Down goes the lid, wait til it’s orange, open it up, and in about 10 seconds at most the screen saver is prompting for my password, and everything is still there and working (including the network interfaces). Awesome awesome awesome—for about a day.  But then it fails to properly bring up X when it’s woken up; this is apparently a known bug, still not fully fixed.
• Fn-F5 and Fn-F6 darken and brighten the screen (I knew there were tricks I could play under SuSE with lots of manual editing to try to make this happen; here it just works);
• Just by doing a rsync of ~/.gaim* from the backup, I was able to bring up Gaim (installed by default) with no trouble at all;
• everything, including bringing up Firefox to edit this post, goes really fast;
• the original install of XP wasn’t messed up (in part cuz of my selection of partition from the previous install of SuSE), but even better, the Ubuntu install of Grub automatically put it in the list of choices at boot-up;
• I have to do Ctrl-Alt-Left and Ctrl-Alt-Right to switch workspaces, instead of the Ctrl-Tab used by KDE to cycle thru them;
• Applications -> Add/Remove is so amazingly easy to install other stuff I want (like Thunderbird, Kaffeine, emacs, and Gnumeric).

I’m really impressed at how easy and seemingly effortless it was to install this.
B

Noticing the new Ubuntu was out I went to the download page.  Like most ISO images, just under 700M. Having but 800M left on my home directory I choose to download it to the /tmp directory on the root partition, which has about 4G free. I start the torrent. As the afternoon went on, I had a healthy download and upload speed. Six o’clock, time to pick up Zoë, the torrent was done but still with a healthy upload speed. Thinking I was being nice I left the torrent running for the night….

Rain, much needed rain all night, but the drought watch continues. Thunder and lighting too. No need to water newely planted trees today. The weather man says more rain today. It’s today?

…I yawn as I get my cup of coffee, and sit at my desk. Time to try an install, /tmp in empty! An up time of nine hours. Stupid thunder and lightning, causing a blackout to reboot my computer and wipe my /tmp directory. Relaunching my torrent, slow download time and no upload time. Rats!

This has got to be one of the coolest domains ever: tcl.tk
(Tcl is an interactive programming language, and Tk is a graphical user interface toolkit in Tcl.)

Headphones don’t last when I get them.  Usually the left earphone stops working.  I expect some nerves impuls drives me to tug on the cord, but nevertheless they still break.  I ended up geting the sleek Jordie LaForge-ish behind-the-head designed Logitech® Curve Headphones for MP3.  Now, months later, the earphones are still fully functioning, but not so the behind-the-head design.  The girth of my head have caused cracks to apear, and a few of them are nearing a split.  The duct tape will me comming out soon.

So, if you have a head that often XXL hats are too small, don’t get the Logitech® Curve Headphones for MP3 if you wish not to have a patch job.  For people with sane sized heads, I’d suggest it.

If you visit the Guinness website, they first ask you what country you’re from. It’s not even necessary, since they can actually figure this out based on your IP address.

But the fun only starts there. After the more expected choices, there’s a series of hyphens then an alphabetical list, starting with Afghanistan. Most of the time there’s no reason to be honest with this sort of question (marketing demographics, bah) I went with Afghanistan.

The result was better than the fact they even ask:

SORRY

Sorry, we are unable to allow you access to our website due to regulations in your country of access

Please leave the GUINNESS® website »

The “Please leave” line is a link to Google. A little script would let you put together a list of all the countries they believe aren’t allowing access to their site. Wonder how they keep track of laws and regulations for every country on the planet?

So, I bittorrented down the kubuntu-6.06-beta-live-powerpc.iso image and burned it to a CDRW. I rebooted my work’s G5 while holding down the c key and went into live 64-bit version. Unlike breezy it didn’t ask me any questions, so I told it no lies, and plopped me down at the KDE GUI in a low resolution. The fan started going, then up popped an error message that the audio didn’t work, and the fan got noisier. Audio didn’t work in breezy either, but at least this time it told me it didn’t work. The fan got louder! Then again, the fan GOT LOUDER! I HAD NEVER HEARD MY THIS MAC THIS LOUD BEFORE, AND STILL IT GOT LOUDER! I PRESSED THE POWER BUTTON ON THE MONITOR BUT NOTHING! AS THE RPM OF THE FAN INCREASED IT GOT EVEN LOUDER! MY SYSTEM IS UNDER AND BEHIND MY DESK, I HAD TO JUMP OVER THE DESK, AND AS THE PEOPLES HEADS FROM OUT IN THE HALL STARTED PEARING IN MY OFFICE THE NOISE LEVEL INCLEASED!! I’M SURE JUST SECONDS BEFORE THE FANS WHERE TO COME OF THERE BASE AND FLY AROUND LIKE LITTLE PLASTIC THROWING STARS I HIT THE POWER BUTTON, AND THINGS got quiet again.

I can’t wait until it’s out of beta.

My house is very unbaby-safe, power tools laying around, drywall dust all over the place, nails on laying on the floor, half the power sockets don’t work and many of the ones that do have no covers, no railing on porches, loose boards at entryways, and doors to steps don’t close.  When I noticed zen.org was not resolving last Friday I could not help to smile knowing that it had nothing to do with the goings on at my house.

While I’m going to hold off buying a new computer until our house is finished, the amount of time it took me last time to pick computer I figure I better start now. The quantity of cash left after the house is finished might have something to do with what I pick too, and I might hold it back a few more months while the bank account replenishes, systems less then $1K seems to fit what I want to do with it. This will mostly be the entertainment system in the new kitchen, I already have speakers, a keyboard and a VGA monitor and stuff so all I need is the box.

My goal, I think, is a Mac Mini, with GNU/Linux, likely Kubuntu. I am not going to pay for a non-libre operating system so any Mac is out of the question. Something with quiet fans, and not to ugly, with a path running down the middle. AOpen‘s cubes look cool, but that only comes with Windows, so far I found:

• HP’s Compaq 7000 series fit the bill, I can even get a Pentium D in it! Even though the Ultra-slim model doesn’t look that bad, it ain’t no Mac Mini.
• Thinking it would be cool to have a 64-bit system I found Genesi‘s Open Desktop Workstation. It’s a PPC system that I think would work great, but it seems to only come with ½G of memory, I was hopping to get 1G. It lacks pictures of the back of the system, so I don’t know what ports I’m getting.
• Last, for now, is Groovix‘s the LINI™ PC, an AMD64 system. Again seems everything I want, again no picture of the back. Plus no hint of a USB ports, it’s gotta have USB2 ports, no? It also worries me that it ships with “Ubuntu + Groovix Enhancements”. So normal Ubuntu will not work?

Purely due to being able to find all the questions I had about the system, I think HP is winning, but I’ll take other suggestions. The new kitchen cabinets arn’t arriving until the end of April so nothing is happening before then.

Katie at ShinyShinypointed to a discussion happening on chick geek sites (like Darla Mack, Anina and Techie Diva). Mainly the fact that at CeBit, lovely Korean mobile company VXMobile decided to have naked (but body-painted) booth babes showing off their product. The mobiles appear to be glued to their arms, and I guess we should thank the Goddess that it wasn’t glued somewhere else.

Now, let me first say one thing: These women are obviously beautiful. They have lovely bodies. They were paid for this. This is their choice, and I have no problems with them.

It’s the stupid-ass marketing people who thought “OH, I KNOW! Let’s paint them. Let’s have them naked and do a Demi Moore on them!” Body painting is an art. It can be classy, stunning and breathtaking.

These booth babes are not. They are painted, sorta. Not artistically, but to get men to look at them and what they are “selling”.

I guess I just thought that, since I know sooo many women involved in technology, so many grrls, hackers, writers, and since most of the people I know online are women, that the world will have caught up with that. Guess not. Hooters sell, apparently. Well, we should find out if VX made a lot of sales at CeBit. But why on EARTH can people still think that nudity, heck, even booth babes, are trade show fodder? I *cringe* when I see women posed over cars and motorcycles at car shows. And I again cringe when I look through Stuff magazine (someone please start a magazine for smart women that has all the same gadgets, but without scantily clad women all over it?)

Women are technically minded. Women who are in tech have, most of the time, been accepted as technical by their (mostly male) peers. Most guys I know accept me as technical cause I can talk the talk. But tech women are smart women. Intelligence. I would love to know what Carly Fiorina, Kim Polese, Esther Dyson, even Grace Hopper, what they would say seeing that. Even women I know who are in tech and television (Michaela Pereira, Sumi Das, Becky Worley), who have dealt with trade shows and reporting from them, who have dealt with this before…I want opinions.

Personally? Women are smart. Women are beautiful. And I don’t even want to go down the line of “don’t let a man demean you”, but it seems that it still needs to be done.

Jeeez. Pink got it right, ya know? I don’t know who to be madder at…the women who stood there, naked but covered in paint, or the idiots who think this is still acceptable.

[tags] shinyshiny boothbabes cebit vxmobile nudity bodypaint anina techiediva darlamack pink irishblogs ireland gracehopper carlyfiorina kimpolese sumidas michaelapereira beckyworley[/tags]