4/11/08 Update: Added testing system specs. (incomplete at this time), updated Ubuntu - Pros and Cons, added and update to Gentoo and opened the Gentoo section.
4/10/08 Update: Added pages for Ubuntu.  Check behind the cut for links.

I know it has been a while, but if anyone out there still calls me a friend, here is a little something for you! I hope you like it! (note, the bastard R. K. Milholland of Something Positive "fame" (infamy) is actually responsible for this work of rubbish, so you will have to hold him liable for any psychological damage done)



Am I back? I don't know...I am playing around with HTML code now, and VERY unemployed (though this may be changing soon, we'll see), as well as working with the unbelievable talent of one Drake Steele to put together a webcomic in the future. Maybe. He is doing the sketching, I am doing ink and color (using the Gimp), and we are both doing story-line, though nothing has been actually done at this point. I will TRY to actually post updates on this as we continue in the process.

I will also TRY to finish, or at least resume, my work on my Linux tryouts. I DO feel a lot more confident in myself at this point in regards to myself, having set up a dedicated Debian VM server for Apache while I'm playing with learning HTML/XHTML. (also, I feel the odd egotistical impulse to point out that I actually wrote this entire post using HTML...not like it is anything worth writing home or anything, but you know...)

Maybe I will even consider writing some quick reference definitions of the things I'm talking about, but I feel sort of like Google is the best resource of this sort of information on the planet. Until I actually bother describing terms, if there are ones you are unfamiliar with, don't feel badly about using it...after all, that's how I learned a great deal of what I know today.

Looks like the latest version of Ubuntu has released on time, and this one is an LTS version (Long Time Support), which gets support for 3 years on the desktop and 5 on the server.  I'm currently downloading the disks to mess around with them a bit here on my work PC (both desktop and server, just to see what differences other than lack of GUI the server has), and will test the upgrade on my laptop probably in the next several days, maybe next week.

I've swapped my Linux drive back out of my laptop for my Windows drive if for no other reason than that I want to play some more WoW than I have been, and I can't get WoW to work on Linux yet.  Will not give up, but will take a break from trying to.

On the other hand, I'm working on a method to get my Windows partition onto my Linux drive so I don't have to swap them to use Windows, just reboot.  Not that a drive swap is hard, but this way I don't have to carry around an extra hard drive everywhere with me.

I know I'm behind on Linux testing, and for anyone interested in what I have, I'm sorry for the wait.  I will try to get more up soon.  If nothing else, I will try to get some pretty screen shots up!

Also:  NoDoz is legal crack.  I need to stop taking them today, or I will start shaking apart.

I love the irony that I'm sitting here taking notes in my class for Microsoft Windows Server 2003: Active Directory on my Linux laptop.

Okay, I've put some of the work that I've done on Gentoo into an update and it is now available in OS Tryouts.  I currently only have part of my work on desktop #2 (Nomad) posted/

I swear, I have too much fun torturing myself with this stuff.

The next update will probably unlock PCLinuxOS and flush out some of the details for my work with Gentoo on my laptop.  I would like to at least get the laptop working first though (it doesn't boot, in spite of all my efforts, into the Gentoo install).

There are no screen shots in the gallery yet, but I will try to get some up over the weekend.

Whew! Just finished up a ton of work getting the Ubuntu side of this thing done, and it is now available, as all will be when they are finished (or at least ready for public scrutiny), on the OS Tryouts post. I used a time/date trick to keep them from appearing on the front page (everything is posted with the right month, day and time, but the year is set to 1988).

You may notice that there are several posts scattered around in there to browse through...some show they are under construction, or just not ready yet, but I will be adding something to those areas soon. I've set up links on each post to make it easy to navigate. I've also re-vamped the galleries to make them easier to navigate, even though there is hardly anything there yet.

I will post additional updates as I add more details to flush it out a bit. I'm also currently working on the same thing for PCLinuxOS, Gentoo, and even Sabayon (although the last is only being run as a virtual machine right now, so all I'm going to comment on is the installer, art and types of packages it installs more than anything...when I install it on my laptop or desktop later, I will give it a better going-over).

I hope someone finds my opinions and trials at least amusing/entertaining, maybe even useful.  Anyway, until next time...

Okay, so I've gone a bit off the deep end on this geeky "stuff", and now have Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS and Gentoo (still non-functional) installed on my laptop. I'm on the verge of writing off Gentoo, but not ready to just yet.


Now, to add to the insanity, I have decided to start playing around with FreeBSD on a virtual machine.
Anyway, OSes I'm considering adding to my list of "to trys":
Sabayon
gOS
Arch

Ones I'm moving from "possibles" to the "to try" category:
Linux Mint
simplyMEPIS

I will post a better way of tracking this soon, and will probably start going a little more crazy with screen shots.

I saw this on g-mail today:



Hmm...isn't this technically email fraud?

For anyone who just might be curious, here is what my desktop looks like on my laptop:


The image is cut from the original 1024x768 (the laptop LCD is limited to that, which sucks) to 800x600 so it is easier to see.

This is XFCE on Ubuntu.

Okay, so my reviewing of Linux distros didn't happen as I promised, but that's probably for the better...I was likely to get horribly technical, and altogether boring.

I will give a quick status of what I have installed so far and messed with:

Ubuntu: Fully installed, currently what I am using on my laptop almost 100% of the time.  Not my distro of choice by a long shot, but certainly one of the easiest to set up and get stable.  In fact, it is the only one of the four that I've done so far that I've been able to get my wireless to work on, but even it took sometime and tweaking (and ripping out what they use by default because it doesn't work with this wireless card).  My #1 pick for anyone wanting to learn Linux as everything is fairly easy to work with and install.

OpenSuSE:  Formerly installed, removed it for another OS.  I thought this would be a permanent OS and I would be removing Ubuntu, but I found SuSE too picky, and I don't like working with its package and hardware manager, yast, at all.  In fact, yast was what I was told to use to set up the bootloader so it would let me boot Ubuntu as well, and it was unable to...I had to do it by hand.  Was not able to get the wireless driver to work.  Same issue as with the default Ubuntu driver for my card...would work all right for a while, then deteriorated and stopped working.

Mandriva:  The single most disappointing distro I've tried yet, the only thing I seemed to be able to rely on Mandriva to do well and to do consistently was to work erratically and crash a lot.  As said, it did so spectacularly, and looked fabulous doing it.  Also, could not get wireless installed.  It is still installed only because I want to try a few more things with it before I give up completely, and then I will probably put something else in its place.

Gentoo:  Well, I have a desktop that I have with a fully functional install of Gentoo (fully functional as of today, took me one week to get running), and an install of Gentoo on my laptop that won't even read the hard drive yet.  In spite of this, it is my favorite distro.  The desktop is the second successful full install of Gentoo that I have done, and the first one to be done on a non-virtual machine, as well as the first to be done by hand, up to and including compiling my own kernel, all successfully.  It was the last part, getting the kernel right, that took me a week...the rest only took me a day to complete.

Currently, I have three slots on my laptop hard drive for OSes, all used.  Once done installing Gentoo, it and Ubuntu will remain my permanently installed OSes with an extra spot for a third to test with.  Kind of my dream setup.

Yes.  I am crazy.  That is what it means to be a geek.

Okay, back on Windows for a little while, as I need something to do my classwork in (and, unfortunately, its Windows specific stuff, and I don't have virtualization working on my Ubuntu drive yet).

Gods, I must be getting spoiled on Linux...this is running SOO SLOWW!!!!  Anyway, in all fairness, part of the problem is a large copy I'm doing right now, but still...and Linux just looks better, in my opinion.

I know I said I would post my reviews on the stuff I'm doing, but I just haven't gotten to it...I already have a couple partially ready and should post them fairly soon...just not sure I will have time this weekend to do it!

Anyway...blah.  Tired, too much work, too much drama.  Wish it were something more share-worthy at this point, but it isn't right now.  Just a lot of stress.  On another note, having a lot of fun on the side messing with Linux and playing City of Heroes (Not at the same time, yet, though...that will be one of the next things I try, though)

Hope anyone actually reading has a good weekend.  All...erm...one of you?

Wow, I suck.

Okay, I want to start this by saying that I am posting this from my laptop that, as of yesterday, became the host of its VERY OWN Linux OS (well, not its own...Ubuntu, but I'll get to that).  I decided to go ahead and get a new hard drive for it that I've been wanting (HUGE upgrade, from a 40GB drive to a 250GB drive), and decided to put Linux on the system.  After some agonizing over which distro to chose (I've tried several, and have strong opinions about a few), I decided to just throw one on that is easy as cake to install and set up and just mess around with it for a bit.

So, I grabbed my copy of Ubuntu 7.10 (Gusty Gibbon, I think it is called) and threw it onto my laptop.  I knew my intention was to dual-boot two distros eventually, maybe even triple boot with a small windows partition just for gaming, but I just installed it over the entire disk and decided to just mess around with this install, and maybe do the same with a couple of others, ones I have not tried before.

After getting it going and messing with it a bit, I decided, why not just do some sort of review of my experience with it?  Who the heck knows, maybe it will help someone someday, and at the very least, i think it will be fun.  So, I've been logging my progress with this for today, and will probably post my initial post of it at some point tomorrow.

So far, the distros I've decided to "demo" are:
Ubuntu 7.10 (because I already am)
Fedora 8
openSuSE 10.3
Mandriva 2008
PCLinuxOS 2007
Debian 4.0 (etch)

And I'm thinking about doing the following:
GoboLinux
Linux Mint
SimplyMEPIS
Xandros
CentOS

I'm not going to do any that cost money, and for that reason, I may not do Xandros...although Xandros does (or at least did) have a limited free version, that's not what I'm really looking at.  This is also why I am not doing RedHat or SuSE Enterprise, but I am doing their free, open source offshoots, Fedora and openSuSE respectively.  Don't even ask about Linspire.

The ones in the first list, I consider to be either the most popular, or the best/most recognized.  One I did not list even though I am planning on installing it is Gentoo, and this is because I don't consider it as one of the ones above...it is not for a new user at all, and the purpose and main criteria of this is ease of use, which Gentoo simply does not qualify for.  I will probably do some sort of review, or at least a journal of what I'm doing with it for everyone else to share in my misery (great OS, but often a pain to get working right).

Disclaimer:  I do not claim to be an expert reviewer, nor a Linux expert, by any means.  I do have my biases, and those will probably become obvious from time to time.  For instance, I hate Fedora.  I love SuSE and Gentoo.  I will try to be as dispassionate as I can be about this, though, and judge them as fairly as I can, especially when it comes to ease of use and ease of setup, which is what this exercise is about.

If anyone is interested in posting comments or feedback, or say whatever they feel, please feel free.  I will try to answer any questions that you have about this as best as I can.

Sorry for the typos I'm sure are in here...I'm just running a basic spell check on it and will proofread it better tomorrow.  As for now, it is WELL past my bed time, and I have work in the morning!

Found on ranka's journal

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

My landlady is one of the worst landlords I have ever had to deal with. She lives upstairs in our vertical duplex and regularly gets drunk and screams at all of her tenants for anything she feels like, and somehow, she thinks that just because she owns the house we live in, she is fully justified in making all of our lives living hell.

I can't even begin to list everything she has done, so I will limit it to the last few things she has pulled...namely, turning off our power at the circuit breaker (it isn't even in her name, it's in one of my housemates' name), stealing my cell phone and my other house mate's security camera (denied all of the above, even though it was painfully obvious), and is now threatening to lock the front gate and only people she decides may come in (illegal, since she can't block our deliveries, and she is going to try to use it to extort us to pay her how much she wants, when she wants, or get out, which is also illegal in this state (yes, we all pay our rent, and on time, too)).

Unfortunately, I feel trapped there. I hate life right now.

NOT even going to go into the details of what made this weekend suck so badly. I will leave it at: Landlord issues, power cutoffs (illegally done by said landlord), and cell phone gone missing (presumed stolen by said landlord).

So, I'm just SO DAMNED HAPPY the weekend has ended. Woohoo. Go me.

For anyone who has played the game Portal: here are the lyrics to the end song "Still Alive", probably the best game song I've ever seen. For those who have not played it...GO PLAY IT!!! One of the best games I have ever played, even though it is fairly short.

Click here for it on you tube.

This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here: huge success.
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.

Aperture science.
We do what we must because we can.
For the good of all of us
Except the ones who are dead.

(Chorus 1)
But there's no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake
And the science gets done and you make a neat gun
For the people who are still alive.

I'm not even angry.
I'm being so sincere right now.
Even though you broke my heart and killed me.
And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
And as they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you.

(Chorus 2)
Now these points of data make a beautiful line
And we're out of beta we're releasing on time.
So I'm glad I got burned think of all the things we learned
For the people who are still alive

Go ahead and leave me.
I think I prefer to stay inside.
Maybe you'll find someone else to help you.
Maybe Black Mesa -
That was a joke. Haha. Fat chance.
Anyway, this cake is great:
It's so delicious and moist.

(Chorus 3)
Look at me still talking when there's science to do.
When I look out there it makes me glad I'm not you.
I've experiments to run there is research to be done
On the people who are still alive

And believe me I am still alive.
I'm doing science and I'm still alive.
I feel fantastic and I'm still alive.
While you're dying I'll be still alive.
And when you're dead I will be still alive.

Still alive
Still alive

Feeling sick...wanted to post some lyrics for a song I've been listening to, but can't find them online at all.

Other than that...yeah, I hate customer support, even if it is technical. Coming in an hour early on their request, only to find that they need another hour to get ready for a meeting? Priceless!

Just shoot me? Please?

How can it be that the most humiliating experience of my life...could have happened this morning as I was dreaming? I won't go into details about it, but for once, I clearly remember the dream...the feeling that it was all wrong...the leering. My cheeks are burning just remembering it, even though it wasn't real.

I know I have been gone a long time, and I very well might be again soon...I'm sure that anyone who ever read this is long gone now, probably long forgotten who I am. I hate leaving things that way, and I hope that I will stop doing so now.

Maybe this is what will get me out of that funk, finally. I guess we will see.

I kinda miss posting here, after all.

Well, I think I can actually come back here to post once in a while if I don't think of it as an all the time thing. I think I just don't have the time (though, when I did, I posted even less, so who's kidding who?) However, once in a while, I think I can be okay with that...but I don't think I will really be spending much time looking at anyone else's journals for a while, at least not with anything approaching regularity.

Hard to do between a full time job, two full time colleges and a full time relationship, ya know?

Anyway, I'm still around, sort of. I haven't forgotten anyone who has posted here, or who I've posted to (though I may have forgotten individual posts), and I have to tell you guys...you have helped me through one of the hardest time of my life once, and I appreciate that, even if I haven't necessarily done the right things with my life since.

Oh, a quick update:

My new job seems to be confidant in me to do better/more than I feel ready to do...I'm flattered, but a little worried that I will let them down, you know? My mom has asked me to be the webmaster and site designer for a new website that a group she belongs to wants to make. This I feel a little more confidant about, as I have a little more leeway in it and more time to figure out what I am doing.

Also, I've rediscovered Billy Joel these last few days, and I just can't stop listening to him. My mom always loved him, and I find that I recognize every song so far that I've listened to from him, but I seem to remember only caring for a couple of his songs. Now, I absolutely love every one of them that I listen to, and some of the ones I didn't care for as much I'm liking better than the ones that I used to love most.

Mmm...I love his voice.

Well, into another week, and I start back to school tonight. College Math II (yuck). I'm also looking into some free courses I can take through a state grant given to my new employer...I think I will take Linux+ first, since that will help most directly with what I'm going to be doing right off, and because if I learn it fast enough, I can probably test out of my linux classes at my main school (saving me some money in the long run).

Also, probably going to be submitting some bug reports for my new job, so I guess I'm either doing something right, or I'm already causing trouble.

Oh, and I recommend going to read http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/GlobalWarning/1064.html . Time for us ALL to get off our buts.

Anyway, til next time...