Category: Compgeeky

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So, Finally a Windows 7 Update with Content

…from twc use, though not much content yet.

Just installed Win7 Beta and… first impressions:

Someone at Microsoft has at least a budding sense of humor. Win7 Beta-Default deskop background is a Beta swimming in a blue field. Cute. *sigh* (I don’t do “cute” well… )

desktop

Installed quickly for a Windows OS. Under 30 mins to a working desktop. Not all that bad. Reboots for parts of the installation process were all under one minute. Seems more responsive than Vista systems I’ve been on, but that’s purely subjective.

Internet Exploder 8 seems to suck a little less than previous iterations of Internet Exploder.

I dislike the default system sounds, but that’s purely idiosyncratic.

The eye candy is nice. Not necessary but nice. Comparable to my default Ubuntu setup.

Recognized all my hardware, set my display to its native resolution.

Small printing problem from within a Control Panel applet, but printing from other apps seems to work fine. Printing over the network’s another story. Seems I need to install a patch to the WinXP computers, as is neccesary for many with mixed Vista/XP networks. Funny, that. Network printing in Linux has been relatively simple, apart from the problems after the upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 that eventually sorted themselves out (Right: long story; see previous posts on that :-)).

So far, this is just about the best beta (shrinkwrapped or not *heh*) I’ve seen from Microsoft, of any kind.

More later.

Update: OK, I have a bit of time for one of my gripes, now. Granular control of security settings is a pain. UAC, for example, allows users to set the security settings to only four simplified, general settings (unbleieveably irritating, two degrees of sorta irritating and off). No granular control. For that, one has to dig around in Win 7’s innards–which I’m perfectly satisfied to do, but which Aunt Tilly and Bubba Billy Bob Joe Jim can’t (shouldn’t) and probably don’t know anyone technically adept enough to do for them. So, the dumbed down training wheels approach is fine for Aunt Tilly and Bubba Billy Bob Joe Jim (by which I mean Academia Nut Fruitcakes (and [darned near] all Prisons for Kids administrators, recent liberal arts graduates, etc.), Big Box-High Dollar “Tech Support” Personnel, as well as the average, innumerate, illiterate computer user). But it’s decidedly NOT OK with me that the GUI doesn’t have an “advanced” tab that allows advanced, granular settings. It’s as though Me$$y$oft is trying to be Apple. *heh*

However, that said, there’s a neat lil app from the WinVistaClub, The Ultimate Windows Tweaker, that very nearly satisfies my desire for a decent GUI to handle digging into some innards (without doing Registry edits, etc.). It appears to work the same for Win7 as it does for Vista, so it’s making my life a tad easier and more comfortable. 😉

Then there are the silly things like no “browse to” button for navigating to files for changing the desktop background. No. Have to select from a “theme” or use Explorer to go to a folder with appropriate graphics files, right click on one and then select “Set as Desktop Background”. *feh* Silly time waster.

Little things, but it’s little things like this that either irk or please me. ‘s’way I am.

BTW, I’d forgotten, after just eight months or so of daily Ubuntu use, just how much I hate Windows’ DRM crap. Watch a TV show or movie online at a site that a.) does “own the rights” and b.) has made it available for free (with ads or whatever) for streaming and… Windows intrudes and says I don’t have the rights to watch it? *feh* yes, *feh* I say! Pain in the tuches doesn’t begin to describe it!

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Win7… Later

Well, I’m glad I have another 500GB hard drive coming in for dual boot installation of Win7 beta on my 64-bit “hog,” because the two low-spec offline (not in current use) comps were… a ta too low-spec for the 32-bit install. Well, that and the fact that neither could really use the dual channel memory I had available to boost them into “maybe” range.

Sooo, next week. A dual boot system to test Win7 against Ubuntu 8.10 on an AMD dual core with (too many) GiB of RAM and a (ridiculously over-powered for text and typical graphics) nice vidcard, etc. Not bleeding edge, but easily powerful enough to have run Vista had I wanted to.

Mini-micro-nano-update: First reports from Fedex had the hard drive coming in on Saturday the 7th. Nope. Updated this afternoon to Tuesday the 10th. ‘s’all right, though, because I have to try to do some remote system management for a client this weekend. It’ll be interesting, to say the least…

Oh, and the system I’m writing this post from? One of those underpowered computers (old 700Mhz slot 1 P-III) that I popped a bare 80GB hard drive into. Sure, I was only able to scrounge up 256MB of the antiquated memory it uses, but it’s running as well as most computers running XP with 2-4X the memory. Oh, and the hard drive? It was a… problem loading the Win7 DVD onto, because the antiquated motherboard can’t recognize anything larger than a 30Gb drive. *heh*.

So, how’s this system working so well? Puppy Linux. Booted from the CD. Loaded GPartEd and found and partitioned the drive. Loaded Puppy Linux onto it, configured GRUB and… good to go.

Slick OS.

BTW, the Puppy Linux live CD is a very cool troubleshooting tool all by its lonesome. Unlike the “bad old days” of live CDs, once the OS is loaded from the CD, it runs in memory, and when apps are loaded from the CD, they’re loaded and run in memory. Browsers are as close to “instant on” as can be imagined, for example.

But, as a tool for rescuing files from a non-bootable Windows system, a Puppy live CD is the first thing in my bag of tricks, because it reads just about any file system out there. Boot the CD, mount the unbootable drive and start hauling files off to a flash drive or burn ’em to optical media or transfer ’em to another hard drive. If a drive is too trashed for that, then I’ll dig out the data recovery tools.

Oh, and If you decide to use Puppy Linux on a regular basis, installing it to the hard drive is a task that approaches the trivial. Configuring the GRUB bootloader is a tad more messy, but not by much. But one can get almost the entire benefit of installing Puppy to the hard drive by simply installing all the Puppy boot files (as well as the config files and saved sessions–including software installs) to the hard drive and just using the bootloader on the CD. Leaves your original OS untouched and doesn’t even mess with your OS’s bootloader that way.

Just not too shabby. And the Puppy community seems to breed new Puppy versions like crazy. From a ChurchPup, for those who want loads of Christian Bible study and related apps, to multiple Puppy distros aimed specifically at the Asus eeepc, there’re loads of offerings.

Puppy Linux. G’wan, adopt a puppy.

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New Line-up for Windows 7

Mary Jo Foley has a brief rundown of the proposed lineup for Windows 7. It’s not all bad news…

And Ed Bott gives a few more details about what the proposed features for the different Win7 versions are. If we do any Win7 here at twc central at all at all (and yes, I plan to install at least Win7 beta 32-bit within a week–and likely the 64-bit version a week after–again, if all goes as planned), I see two, or even three, different versions as being of potential worth:

Windows 7 Home Premium – This is the successor to Windows Vista Home Premium, and Microsoft expects it to be the most common edition sold, the standard for virtually all consumer PCs. It includes the Aero interface with its Windows 7 enhancements, plus Windows Media Center, DVD playback support, and multi-touch and handwriting features. I’m also told (but can’t yet confirm) that image-based backup is included in this edition for the first time.

If I decide not to go with LinuxMCE or something similar on the HTPC I plan on installing this year, this would be worth looking at for that application.

Windows 7 Professional – This edition drops the Business label used in Windows Vista and goes back to the old XP-era name, presumably to give XP users more comfort in their upgrade decision. Unlike Vista Business, this edition contains all features in the Home Premium edition, including Media Center. For the extra cost, you get more traditional business features like the ability to join a Windows domain, group policy based management tools, Remote Desktop host capabilities, network-based backup features, and support for the Encrypting file system.

Group policy management tools. I liked the group policy management console (add-on for workstation users, built-in for server ver.) in Win2K, and even better in Server 2003 and XP (not available for Home ver). I was disappointed that the tool wasn’t included with Vista Premium (although Ultimate users had it included, of course), so that group policy management had to be done with Registry edits. So, group policy console functions included: good. Network based backup features built in? A plus. I’d have to see what pricing is like though, because the additional features mentioned here that I’d want on a twc central computer can all be duped with free add-ons from third parties.

And the “maybe” candidate? Well, Windows 7 “Starter Edition” (supposed to be available as an OEM only, but that’s how I usually buy Windows licenses anyway) might have some usefulness in older equipment, but since the beta that’s available now seems to install on some low-spec hardware, even this might not be needed around here–not that any of these versions are needed, just that some may turn out to be useful.

We’ll see. Maybe this version of Windows will appeal to me more than XP and Vista (2003 Server and Windows Home Server were pretty nice. Haven’t used/been directly exposed to 2008 Server; that’s one of the very few Windows versions I’ve had no exposure to, though what I’ve read/heard about it has been, on balance, very good).

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Procrastination

I really should be making hay while the sun shines, getting with the program, and all sorts of other clichés. *heh* But. Last night was a loooooong night. No pressing appointments today. Things–many!–to do, but

Lethargy. All my vigor’s seeping out of me,
Now I’m barely rising to my knee,
Oh, lethargy came over me…

(You know the tune. Some sing other words to it, like, “Leprosy. All my skin is falling off of me… “ *heh*)

All I wanna do is nap, but I’m getting some things–“needful things”–done that will stand me in good stead when my schedule picks back up tomorrow. Still, I’m definitely NOT getting the chainsaw out and whittling away at the woodpile or cutting down those small trees I need to give our new neighbors. (They have a nice 3-walled shed to dry the wood in for their fireplace.)

Nope. Right now, I’m just getting used to my second keyboard/mouse combo in two weeks. Yeh, yeh. Got ’em both for less than the retail on one. Loved the keyboard on the first combo (a Gateway branded wireless combo) but hated the mouse. Stiff buttons and wheel. Really stiff. The mouse my Wonder Woman has (at work) from the mate to the Gateway set I was using was much better. Just individual differences, I guess. So, when I ordered her a nice lil Logitech wireless mouse for her notebook, I picked up a Logitech keyboard/mouse combo for me at the same time.

*sigh* Love the mouse. The keyboard’s not nearly as nice as the Gateway branded keyboard, though. Feels kinda cheesy. Oh. Well. I can either add the Gateway-branded sensor back on and use the keyboard that goes with that or get used to this keyboard. I think I’ll try for the latter for now. Sure do like this mouse, though.

BTW, what the heck ever happened to LED indicators for CAPS/NUMLOCK, etc.? Maybe it’s a power-saving thingy. Oh, well. I’ll stuff some high-density foam under the CAPSLOCK key anyway pretty soon now so I don’t have to deal with my indifferent typing skills resulting in inadvertent ALL CAPS typing.

Oh, the “old” wireless keyboard/mouse combo? Spare. Always need spares. 🙂

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Considering Windows 7

I’ve had a love-hate (more like, “moderately friendly/utterly despise”) relationship with Microsoft since about DOS 4 (known to some of us as DOG 4), and even in the halcyon times of Windows 3.X, I preferred running those drafty Windows versions on top of IBM’s PCDOS or Novell DOS.

I suffered through the cranky, creaky, crappy Windows 95, the almost good Windows 98 (and the “quite acceptable for most uses” 98SE… with some appropriate thefts from–> ), passed on the Muppet Edition, found NT4 useful and Win2K to be Just Right (for most things), never warmed much to XP and was appalled at the truly bad decisions that brought out the bloated resource hog, Vista.

In spite of my gripes, I’ve found Ubuntu 8.04/8.10 to be better overall than most Microsoft OS offerings, for most things (still sucks dead bunnies through a straw for midi creation).

But the rumbles going on about Windows 7 intrigue me. Seriously. I meant to install and evaluate the beta in January, but things just got in the way. I’m way off schedule on things, already, for February, but I hope to get to taking a serious look at Windows 7 this month. For one thing, this caught my eye:

…Windows 7, unlike Vista, has a small footprint and is not a resources glutton. I know this to be a fact because I have the beta version running on my Eee PC and it works fine – and it’s just a beta!

Intriguing. Me$$y$oft publish unbloated code? Could be a Very Good Thing. Since I’m considering a netbook purchase this year for myself, this could be a Very Very Good Thing indeed. And my Wonder Woman would probably appreciate some sort of Windows on the HTPC I might install this year, so if Windows 7 is at all acceptable, it could well be a candidate for that PC.

Even if I do make such a move though, it’d still leave three or more ‘nix boxes on our lil network–and maybe more, since I know an old Compaq (seriously spiffed up hardwarewise) will be going online this month with PCBSD, and when Son&Heir gets his softmods done on his old XBox, that’ll be another.

But the early reports on Windows 7 bode well for a new computer or two here at twc central using the OS. If it really pans out like the early press indicates.

UPDATE: *heh* This guy claims to have installed Windows 7 on a 600Mhz box w/only 512MB of RAM. If so–and the video of him doing it is compelling!–I have a few computers to try the 32-bit version on just sitting around unused. Need a DVD drive for ’em, though (yeh, they’re that old).

Update#2: Oh, heck, why not. *heh* Since I removed the “personal media drive” connectors and backplate, I have two more ready-made places (one in the bottom of the case) for SATA drives–and three open SATA connections on the MOBO. In addition, since I probably will remove the DVDROM drive from this computer for the old comp I’ve singled out to try the 32-bit Win7 on, I can install another drive–either SATA or IDE, in that bay, cover the bay opening and bob’s your uncle. While I seriously doubt I’ll add three more drives to this rig, I could, so even though I dislike the idea, I could easily do a dual boot of Win7 (64-bit) and Ubuntu 8.10 (64-bit)… and I might do just that.

Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, Faultline USA, Democrat=Socialist, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, and DragonLady’s World, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Why I Didn’t Answer Your Email

It was lost in a sewer backup, according to eWeek’s report on a Panda Security finding.

…according to a new study issued by researchers at AV specialists Panda, the astonishing amounts of spam and malware attacks that arrive at companies electronic doorsteps each day is shockingly over 90 percent.

Yes, that’s right, according to Panda’s survey of 430 million e-mail messages received by its customers during the last year, only 8.4 percent were legitimate.

So, while you may or may not have missed an email from me because of toxic sludge clogging your inbox, I imagine a lot of email is lost in this clutter, no matter how–or perhaps because–email server admins may labor to block SPAM. How much legitimate email is accidentally blocked by legitimate attempts to block spam we may never know. It’s part of the price we pay for not being civilized enough to track spammers down and burn them alive, sell their children into slavery and eradicate their names from the face of the earth. Instead, we all pay the price of our limp-wristed approach to this evil scum.

Oh. Well. You’ll never know if I missed your email because I filter my accounts through my hosting service’s spam blocker, or if I simply ignored it (surely not!)… or if my answer was filtered by YOUR spam filtration. *heh* All I know is that my inbox is now down to a few spam emails a week, where once I was receiving 1,000s. Since I don’t have the cojones to track spammers down, burn them alive, etc., I guess I will just have to live with that.

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Political Byline, Faultline USA, The World According to Carl, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, and Democrat=Socialist, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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A Word About Ubuntu Forums

I’ve had remarkably good experiences, for the most part, finding helpful information on the Ubuntu Forums site when I ran into something puzzling about the OS that wasn’t readily dealt with via my normal troubleshooting efforts. I’ve seen some threads where some self-important twit mocked folks for asking for help in a manner they felt was beneath them to answer, but only rarely. I’d never experienced something like that myself until today. A quick crosspost:

Quote:Originally Posted by mnmus

I have a similar problem. Yesterday, Nautilus reported over 221GiB gree space on my drive (out of a nominal 400gig drive with a little over 20gig reserved for swap file/extended. (GParted has never seen more than about 380GiB of that, normal for drive/OS)

Today, after applying recommended updates (mostly security-related, IIRC), I can do very little as Nautilus reports 0 bytes free space on the drive. That means, of course, that Thunderbird won’t download mail–or even allow me to delete mail, and anything that requires any disk space usage–apart from swap file, apparently, is an exercise in futility. Heck, my saved sessions in Opera and Firefox disappeared, as well.

Oh, GParted reports that I have about 10GiB free apart from swap space, out of the ~362GiB it sees on my primary partition… quite a bit less than the 221GiB available yesterday.

Additional pieces of the puzzle:

Nautilus reports only 137.2GiB of files, adds that “some contents are unreadable”–something like another couple hundred GiB “unreadable”?

*sigh* I’ve had petty lil things regularly go south after updates (sound, video, etc.) but never a couple hundred gig of storage just go *poof!* before. For something like this, I’d almost switch back to *shudder* Windows. (More likely, I’d back up my Home folder to an external drive, nuke Ubuntu and install Puppy Linux, Suse Linux, PC-BSD–even though importing my data might be a lil less straightforward–or something else equally well-behaved, instead of what has turned out to be a very cranky Ubuntu… *profound sigh*).

Any suggestions about what the heck is going on?

The time it took you to post this long whining post, you could have posted the outputs of those commands in my previous reply. Then, somebody could have figured out what’s wrong with your disk space!

Indeed, the guy who responded to my post is correct: I could have posted the information he referred to; in fact, I already had it on hand. But. That same jackass had told the originator of the thread I posted to to post the same information… two weeks ago. The thread originator had done so and… *crickets chirping* Mr. Jackass had made no further reply in that time. Indeed, had Mr. Jackass been paying any attention, he’d have seen that the major information resulting from the suggested commands was already contained in my post, just confirmed from other apps within the GUI.

I’m glad of one thing. The above took place online. If the jackass had sneered in my face like that in person, I might be having to find a place to hide the body. *heh* OK, so maybe not. ONE of us would likely be looking for a place to hide the body… 🙂 Well, perhaps not, but he’d sure feel like he had had a new anal orifice installed… (because the one he is using to form words with is past due for replacement).

And it still leaves my issue unadressed: how the heck to I access my hard drive space? Oh, I can access it using root priviledges, either from the command line or by invoking Nautilus with root priviledges, but that doesn’t help if I want to create a text file or a spreadsheet or even check my mail using Thunderbird–or even save a session in one of my browsers.

Here’s a tiny little piece of the puzzle. Nautilus, reporting after deleting a little over 30GiB of no longer needed data and programs, now reports an awesome 1.4GiB free space!

free-space

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Shadetree Tech: Dreadlock Wigs and Chicken Bone Rattles

“Make the world go away… ” Thanks Eddie Arnold (and Hank Cochran) for that thought. In that spirit, no politics, social commentary or whatever from the “news” here, just play time for (low) techies.

Think back to “shadetree mechanics” and… begin.

Some of the fun of playing around with computers is attempting to use them–and “(in)appropriate” peripherals–for purposes they weren’t originally intended for. Now, we’ve all done that with computers from time to time: made them into hardware firewalls/routers, print servers, doorstops, boat anchors, shelving supports and more–or at least I assume we’ve all done so. *heh*

Ran across a neat lil peripheral recently as the result of some printing woes here at twc central. Background: because I’m a cheap, tightwad of a curmudgeon, I decreed some time ago that we all simply share one printer on the network (nice to be the potentate ruling my own domain *heh*). Currently, that printer is a nice HP AIO with memory card reader that’ll catch the memory cards from any (digital) camera in the house, scan, copy, print, etc. Then, along came my (completely unnecessary) upgrade of Ubuntu from 8.04 to 8.10. Since the printer at issue is connected to this computer (I have the largest desk, so by default EVERYTHING gravitates to it), naturally sharing ANYTHING–not just the printer–died with the upgrade.

*sigh* I fixed network shares pretty easily, except for the printer. Went right down the line by “the book”–no joy. Went off book with a vengeance. No joy. Hassled with the thing off and on for a couple of days and gave in and bought the HP Wireless Printing Upgrade Kit. Got my confirmation email from amazon.com that it had been shipped.

Shazam!! Printer magically appeared on other computers as shared.

Isn’t that the way it always works? Better than wearing a dreadlock wig and shaking a chicken bone rattle while mumbling arcana and dancing around, perhaps shrieking like a bansidhe* to boot. Just buy something to fix a problem and the problem disappears. *heh*

So, now I have the HP Wireless Printing Upgrade Kit and no need for it. What to do? Go ahead and screw up the working network printing by installing the kit and then spending days getting IT working? (Altogether too likely *heh*) I don’t think so. So, what else is the thing good for?

Looked at the thing. Can’t tell anything from the outside, so just thought over what topology the kit would have to introduce/fit into to work as advertised. Checked out the “advanced” setup mini-micro-nano-information on the CD concerning using the thing on an existing wireless network. *heh* “Looks like it’s just an access point and a wireless adapter the software configures for the printer use,” me thought. Plugged the part that looks like a thumb drive or wireless network adapter for a n otebook into this computer, enabled wireless networking, entered the network key and… bob’s your uncle. (Of course, enabling wireless networking has meant the wireless connection has usurped my network connection from my wired ethernet, but since the MIMO capabilities on my Netgear WPN824 seem to be used by the lil wireless adapter, I’m getting very nearly the same throughput I do with wired ethernet.)

Next up: installing the unit designed for (USB) attachment to the printer to the network elsewhere (say, an old XBox, using an already adapted XBox cable–a simple hardware hack) and see if it’ll act as the wireless access point it would seem it is. Heck, I might get more use out of this for entertainment value than by using it for its intended purpose. And, if networked printing goes south on me again, I can always pop this lil puppy out and install it for its intended purpose, eh?

Now, how can I retask that old 2.5′ tall P-II server I had made into a router/firewall… Ahhh! Attach it to the network as a subnet and play with the lil kit items on it. Hey! Might be able to make that back into my primary router/firewall, since its firewall capabilities exceed similar functions in the Netgear router…

All kinds of fun to keep me occupied away from getting more important stuff done, if I want it to let it. 😉

(Yes, this post does indicate I’m semi-sorta-kinda “icebound” for now. Just do not want to navigate the hill out of our lil neighborhood on the sheet ice I walked earlier.)

*”Bansidhe”–Don’t complain to me about the spelling! Complain to the bansidhes, if you dare! Spell it “banshee” if you want, but don’t come running to me if you wake up with one of ’em shrieking under your window at night because of your inconsiderate spelling…

Note to any bansidhes reading this: I really, really need my sleep, and I tried to discourage folks from disrespectful spellings referencing your class, so lay off, OK? 😉

Do check out Linkfest Haven Deluxe for the latest, greatest linkfests.

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It’s the Little Things…

Interesting week. Little things, mostly compy-related.

My dad–aged 85–called up with a boot issue. Pretty smart guy sbout this stuff, especially for someone who spent better than 70 years before ever even being exposed to using one of the things. Followed directions well and we traced the problem very quickly to a dead CMOS battery. Sent him pictures, a diagram and instructions and he was cool with the whole thing, *heh* Gives him a reason to play with his grounding strap.

On the other end of the spectrum, the guy that was on the other end of the line when my dad first called is clueless about computers. I picked his up the next day. His WinXP install was well and truly trashed, and the only real fixes were to either hope a repair install fixed things or a complete reinstall. Since he didn’t have the original WinXP install CD, I dug a lil further. Yep. Was not going to shell out one of MY licenses to reinstall Windows (his “license” was… apparently a lil hinky). When the repair install failed, I eschewed attempting a reinstallation using the product key it’d been installed with and just installed Puppy Linux for him, since he insisted all he used the thing for was surfing and email–and there was NOTHING in any email store for any email client, so he meant all webmail.

[Edit: his response when I got it back to him and set up: “It’s never been this fast!” Of course not, it was dragging one of the Queen Elizabeth’s anchors (WinXP) behind it all the way… Even his online java gaming was faster. But, a caveat for folks who do need java/java plugins. Installing/enabling java/java plugins is not all that straightforward in Puppy Linux and involves a LOT of typing at the command line, although some of that can be relieved by some creative mousing–something I was reduced to because of my typo-laden command line “skills” *heh* Still, dragging a plugin or executable to create a hard link where one is needed is easier than typing a long string into the command line and avoids easily-created errors, so I’m not ashamed to admit doing it. 🙂 Configuring browsers to use java after all the background installation and links to plugins has been done is a trivial task, though.]

Puppy’s ideal for him anyway, since the computer is a 700Mhz box with only 256MB of RAM and a 10GB hard drive almost full of programs he never used because they were “inaccessible” to the WinXP that’d been installed over Win98. I don’t imagine he’s got any complaint with running Puppy instead of WinXP, since WinXP had been installed over what was there when he got it from a dump.

Oh, finally got my first opportunity of 2009 to help my Wonder Woman down at one of her libraries, yesterday afternoon. She wanted to move her office computer to the other side of the room from her desk, but keep her monitor, keyboard and mouse on her desk. Easy-peasy. A looooong monitor cable extension (about 2+X the diameter of her original monitor cable, with a humongous amount of shielding, etc.) routed around the wall took care of the monitor issue. Since her office computer’s a Gateway (a very nice, very capable P4 that is several orders of magnitude better than the Dells the school system bought for student use in the libraries), I found her a nice Gateway RF wireless mouse/keyboard combo. Took more time moving and re-routing cables, bundling things up in wire loom, etc., than you might think, but at the end, actualized the mouse/keyboard and she was away to the races.

Fun. (Oh, I bought a second set for me, so I can slide back a few feet, put my feet up on my keyboard drawer and–with a lil “mousing table” nearby–set Opera to 200% and laze through an eBook. *heh* Places the monitor 6′ or better away from my eyes, but really easy easy to read that way.

*heh* I just love freebies. Someone asked me to evaluate using a DirectTV R15 receiver for an offlist purpose. It didn’t work out and I let ’em know why. Emailed me back: “Keep the thing.” Now I have a spare 160GB hard drive, pulled from it. Nice. And I know just where I’ll put it–as slave to an 80GB drive in an old 900Mhz system with 512MB memory. I’ll partition the things into 40GB partitions, I think so I can dual boot Puppy Linux and Windows 98. Maybe. I read an interesting article about virtualization with Puppy, so I might give that a shot. 512MB of memory is pretty slim to do virtualization with, IMO, but between the parsimony Puppy treats memory with and the relatively low memory needs of Win98, I might be able to do it.

Didn’t get to the P.O. until after 4:30 yesterday. I wonder what the package is that was too big for our box?

I’m running about 3-1 this week on answering machine messages on my POTS line as opposed to voicemail on my VOIP phone. Hmmm… If I dropped my POTS line, do you think more people would call my VOIP phone? I like having my messages emailed to me, since I’m almost always at a computer–either mine or someone else’s. I hate cell phone voicemail, and I keep my cell phone turned off ALL the time, unless I’m making calls, so my VOIP phone is “my” phone. Heck, I make more local calls on it than I do on our POTS line.

Oh, BTW, back at the Puppy Linux thing: installing Puppy Linux to a hard drive from the live CD is now a trivial operation. A little wizard just copies over the image from the live CD… though minus one critical element that must be “installed” separately, so booting that installation is something else. The GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) installation wizard isn’t quite as straighforward, definitely not “Aunt Tilly” ready, IMO. After a couple of tries using it, I just looked up the GRUB boot config file it had created and did a little editing to make the thing work. Notaproblem, really, but I don’t expect the “Aunt Tillies” of the world to go for that. Close, but no cigar.

OTOH, for someone who just surfs the web and does email, booting a live CD Puppy Linux session could be all the computer they need, and Aunt Tilly could handle that (once Nerdy Nephew ran the easy-peasy network wizard that does work well and shows her where to CLICK to install PET packaged software, in case she needs more than is in the standard installation).

Today: day of R&R and bumaround chores. First thing: pick up that package at the P.O. Then, grocery shopping, library and little things like that. Easy day. Maybe get an afternoon nap. I hope.

If I keep myself focused on the ordinary things of life, maybe I’ll not brood over the little things like The One being the very first newly-inaugurated president to skip out on the Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball since it was begun 56 years ago… (h.t. MoreWhat) Whatabum.

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Drive-by Compy Post

So, UPS came and went. 10 minutes later (took longer than absolutely needed to, cos I was being very careful… something I try to do consciously when I’m caffeine-deprived *heh*), new vidcard, new drivers good to go. Not as hairy as it could have been. Not too much command line stuff to do for new drivers, hence not as much chance for my usual typos. :-).

Quick rundown: I don’t “do” computer gaming, so although the onboard video was not satisfactory and I’d intended to replace it all along, I waited until a suitable vidcard turned up before doing so. Still, “suitable” for me would definitely not be suitabe for a hardcore gamer. But all I needed was quick response for normal video, still graphics and text. I had “pretty good” with the onboard video, just not “good enough” IMO, and besides, it took as much as 512MB of my system memory, sooo…

EVGA nVidia 9500GT with 1GB of DDR2. Now, if I’d been a gamer, I would almost have had to shell out another $100 beyond the ~$70 I paid for this one for a 9800GTX with 1GB of DDR3 and a faster GPU, but this card

1. frees up 512MB of (DDR2) system memory
2. with 2 DVI ports, offers an extra video out (over the analog video out the onboar video offered) in addition to the S-Video port it has, while the onboard video (with its analog and S-Video ports) is still available should I need it.

(I don’t expect I’ll be enabling the HDMI port on the motherboard any time soon, but it’s there as well)

Immediate impression? The DVI video does make a difference on my 22″ “widescreen” Acer V223W LCD. An easy “test” for me is the wee lil favicons I have lining a toolbar at the bottom of Opera: much clearer than earlier today with the analog input.

‘S’all, folks. Just a drive-by status report. Contrary to some of my experiences adding “unsupported” peripherals to Ubuntu, no hosing of system today.

L8R