Sabayon-unbelievably bad

In my quest to get a new OS up and running on my Compaq CQ60-210US laptop, I decided to give Sabayon Linux a shot. The LiveDVD worked flawlessly. Installed the OS without incident. Upon reboot, I got a screen stating that something did not install (or was configured) correctly. WTF? Didn't this all get figured out when the LiveDVD booted up? Didn't the configuration get saved to the hard disk upon install? The closest I could get was to a command prompt. Again, if this were a project where people were paid to do it, there would be some firing going on. On to Linux Mint 13 KDE edition.

Don't Slow Down!

Driving Courtesy

I am someone who people accuse of driving like an old man. Maybe so—I don’t know.

I do know that I like to drive at the speed limit. Once I have arrived at the speed limit, I set my cruise control and just sit back and enjoy.

One think that I have noticed around Fort Smith, that I find very irritating, is the habit of drivers, once they are in the vicinity of 1,000 to 1,500 feet of their exit ramp, to slow down. This is uncalled for. That is why they make exit ramps—to give one a place to slow down before they reach their destination that does not impede traffic. Big notation here: IMPEDE TRAFFIC.
On I-540 around Fort Smith, the speed limit is 65 mph. I set my cruise control at this speed, and courteously drive in the right-hand lane (as one is supposed to drive) except when I am passing, or giving room for an emergency vehicle, or someone stranded on the side of the road. I was on 540, behind someone who was getting off at the same exit that I was getting off at (Grand Avenue). Just as they passed the on-ramps from Kelly Highway, I noticed them starting to slow down. There was quite a bit of passing traffic, so I just opted to disengage my cruise control and follow behind them—bad move on my part. By the time that we reached the off-ramp for Grand Avenue, we were doing 45 mph! I usually don’t suffer from road rage, but this made me angry. Why was it necessary to start slowing down 1 mile before the exit, and to slow to 20 mph below the speed limit before tires touched the off-ramp?

This is a true, and somewhat extreme example. Most of the time it is within the one thousand to fifteen hundred feet area that the slowdown occurs.

I usually get off of 540 at SR 59, which is just across the Arkansas River Bridge in Crawford county. Invariably traffic will begin to slow down on the bridge as someone is slowing down in anticipation of the exit that is just off of the bridge. The exit ramp is long enough to safely slow down in time to meet that stop sign near Industrial Park Blvd. but most drivers do not think that this is enough and slow about mid-way across the bridge.

Stop doing this! Slow down once your tires hit the asphalt of the exit ramp, not before. There is no need to do so sooner. If you are worried about your brakes, go down and get them checked. That is what they are made for. Do not start slowing down while you are on the Interstate. This causes unsafe driving conditions and can cause accidents.

Thank you.

PCBSD—Not Ready for Primetime

Even before installing PCBSD, I have thoughts on it. What is up with the slow mirrors?

I tried downloading the new 9.1 Beta and stopped it, thinking that the mirrors must be overloaded due to the horrendous download speeds I was getting.

I tried three and the speed was abysmal. I cannot say exactly what the kbps rate was because I was trying to download it through Chrome, and in the annoying bottom bar, it does not give what the speed is of the files coming across. But after 1/2 hour and the download was at 0.1 % of 3.4 GB, I stopped it.

So I tried bittorrent. I started the download and went to bed. When I got up in the morning, the download was done and I burned it to DVD, just to find out that the file had been corrupted (no, I did not do a hash on it). Fortunately I burned it onto a DVD-RW disc, so I did not make a coaster.

Now I am downloading it with DownLoadThemAll through Firefox.  The download has been running for over 2.5 hours and it tells me that average throughput is about 93 kbps. Come on! That is dialup speed x2! I don’t pay for 20 Mbps from Cox just to download files at twice dialup speeds.

To the folks at PCBSD--get or recruit faster mirrors. Or invest a few bucks in a hosting service such as 1 & 1 that gives unlimited bandwidth for a low monthly fee.

I try to be patient, but 93 kbps is unreasonably slow. These mirrors, that are so slow, are actually an impedance to adoption of PCBSD, rather than a help.

Première partie

Later that same day:

PCBSD finally completed downloading. After successfully completing the hash test on Windows 7 (the program that does this very nicely on Windows 7 is called File Checksum Integrity Verifier (fciv.exe) I was off.

Upon boot-up, I was asked the normal questions. Installation was a breeze. After installation came the mandatory reboot.

The KDE desktop looked very nice--exactly what I expected. I configured it to work with my wireless network with little problems. It did take two tries before it connected to my network via WPA2 encryption. Why there was a delay, I do not know. But it finally got its IP address from the router and all was well.

The first thing that I noticed is that when trying to launch vital KDE applications, KPatience and KMahjongg, the windows would not display. The Window frame would show KPatience or KMahjongg at the top, but inside, the windows were blank.

After a few moments, there was a system notification stating that there were updates ready to install. One of those updates was for KDE—something about memory access.

After all of the updates were installed, the display problem with KDE went away.

This is unacceptable. 9.0 should never have been released with such a problem built-in. To be honest, this turned me off. If there was a known issue in KDE in regards to how it interacts with PCBSD, then why not fix the problem and make THAT fix the 9.0 release?

Though I know that PCBSD is a volunteer-based project, one needs to consider the people who are downloading and using it as being customers. One always wants to make the customer experience as enjoyable as possible. If my laptop had not been connected to a network upon startup, this “issue” would have been a deal-breaker for most people, except for perhaps the most masochistic of geeks.

Then I tried to fire up Ardour. It said it could not find JACK and would not go further. I don’t know JACK (pun intended). Should this have not been set up when PCBSD ran from the DVD? Or if not at that time, upon first boot-up into the operating system? To be fair, I do not know if this is a problem with PCBSD, or with Ardour. But I know that the first time I ran Adobe Soundbooth on my other laptop, it never complained about not knowing JACK or being able to use my laptop’s resources.

Deuxième Partie

I decided that this might not be a fair review of PCBSD, since obviously many changes have gone into the 9.1 Beta release. So I decided to just wipe my laptop to the new version and start my odyssey there.

Installing 9.1 Beta was much the same as installing 9.0. It asked similar questions and seemed to go well. This time it asked me what desktop I would like to use. My Compaq is no piker, but I like a snappy desktop. I find that KDE & Gnome just have this extremely bloated feeling to it. IMO, on the same hardware, Windows 7 is much more responsive that KDE is. It is a shame--I used to love KDE. But I digress.

I choose Xfce for my Window manager--light, quick, perfect. It installed without problem.

Upon the reboot, while the desktop was loading, the machine locked up and went into some sort of loop. See video for details.

The mouse was responsive, and if Ctrl+Alt+F2 were pressed, it would take me out to the command prompt. This tells me that the underlying operating system was okay, it was just Xfce freaking out in some way.

But though the underlying OS was fine, this is still PCBSD’s fault. Before a product is released into beta-land, those types of kinks need to be worked out.

It is unacceptable to release in beta an OS that has an included Windows Manager where the two do not work together--in an alpha release, perhaps. Give the geeks something to work on.

I realize that this damages my geek cred, but that is okay. I am 49 years-old. I remember playing with Linux back in 1996, trying to figure out how to get it to see the floppy disk that I just put into the computer. That was a challenge, then.

Now, I just want the tech to work. I cannot be bothered with interrupts, dependency hells, DLL hells, and the like. Perhaps PCBSD is too young to have such high hopes for it. To be honest, most Linuxes are not there yet either.

Fini

And so, alas, for the time being, my PCBSD test is over even before it has begun. For right now, I will be heading back to Linux, trying out Sabayon Linux.

Just an observation

Why is it in this connected age are people more rude than in years past? There have been times I have emailed people, sent them private messages on Facebook, texted them, just to be ignored. I think it may be because there is no accountability in the communication. In years passed, if you said “hi” to someone face-to-face and they snubbed you, there was accountability there. Of if you called up someone on the phone, they answered, you said “hello” and they hung up on you, there was really no getting around not knowing how they felt about you. But in this digital age, a brief “hello” or such is just so much more noise in the cacophony of our lives. I’ve been guilty of it too. But I’m trying to change. When Jesus prayed for us, he prayed not that we might gain more information about each other and everything else, but that we might love one another. Let us all try to be guilty of loving more today than we did yesterday. At our ends, what do we take with us into eternity? Our relationship with God and our relationships with those we have loved. There are no iPads in heaven. Steve Jobs left his behind just like the rest of us.

Old Cellphone? Recycle It!

All of us have them—cell phones sitting in a drawer, slowly dying from disuse. At one time they served their purpose, but they are now just junk that is cluttering up the place. Maybe we switched carriers, and our “old faithful” would not work on the new carrier’s network? Or maybe we upgraded to a “smartphone” and no longer have a need for that old “candy bar” phone? But is there still some value in that old clunker? I'm glad I asked! Yes there is!

Use it as an emergency phone

All cell phones, regardless of carrier, are required to allow calls to 9-1-1. Just make sure your old friend is charged. Throw it in the glove box of your car, or in a drawer. If something unfortunate ever happens, you will have an emergency communication device at hand. Many of us drive with our cell phones out on the seat of the car for various reasons. Slam the breaks on suddenly and watch your precious smartphone go flying. Where would it go in the case of an accident? Knowing you have an emergency phone in the glove compartment can give you extra peace of mind.

 

Use it for the programs (applications) it contains

Backup alarm

I have an old cellphone in my bedroom as a backup alarm clock. In case the power goes out, for whatever reason, it will not affect my cellphone. If the main alarms go down due to no power, I know that my trusty cellphone will still wake me up in time to go to work. Being a cellphone, it sets its time automatically to the servers, so it always shows the right time. And if it is plugged into A/C power, when the power goes down? It still works since it runs off of its battery. You can use your regular cellphone in this regard as well, but sometimes you do not want to always keep your cellphone in your bedroom while you sleep.

Timer

Most cellphones have a built-in timer. This is great if you are cooking something. Just set the timer on the old cell and place it on the counter (or take it with you for a very handy mobile reminder. When not in use, old faithful can sit in a drawer, ready for service.

Calculator

Ever need to do some quick math and not remember where you placed that calculator? Well, if you have a charged cellphone around—there is your calculator.

Recycle it

Cellphones contain harmful chemical and compounds inside of them. If thrown away, those chemicals go either into a landfill and can wind up leeching those poisons into the environment, or if incinerated, those toxins can go into the air we breathe. Neither option is cool. There are numerous free options available that are both good for the environment and good for the world.

Staples

Take your old cellphones and/or charges to your local Staples store. They will accept it regardless of where you originally purchased the phone. This is a free service that the fine folks at Staples provide.

Troops

Donate your used cellphones to those brave men and women who serve in our armed forces.

Recycle

Send your cellphone to these fine folks and they will take care of it for you. If it is operable, they will resell it. If not, they will recycle those parts that are working into making other working cellphones. If it cannot be recycled, they will ensure that it is disposed of properly.

I am certain that there are many other uses for old cellphones. If you think of one that you would like to share, just write it down in the comments. If this article is revised later, and your ideas are incorporated into the revision, I will be sure to give you the credit.

Kaspersky woes

Earlier this month I purchased a new laptop at BestBuy.


The screen on my previous laptop was broken due to my own stupidity. I tried to repair it myself, but I purchased the wrong replacement screen from a company in Vancouver, BC. I just set the laptop aside and didn’t get back to it. Other than the broken screen it works great.

Due to procrastination, I never did get the screen exchanged for the correct one, so I’ve been laptopless for the past six months.

The laptop that I bought is a Toshiba Satellite L775D. It is a good laptop for a good price at BestBuy.

The only complaint that I have with it is not the laptop itself, but rather the deceptive promise that the BestBuy associate made. Attached to the laptop was an install CD for Kaspersky Anti-Virus. When I asked him about this, he said that the laptop came with a one-year subscription to the anti-virus of my choice. I had the choices of Kaspersky, TrendMicro, and Norton. I opted for Kaspersky.

The first “surprise” was that the “free” subscription was only for six months—not one year. I had wanted to get AVG Anti-virus, but that was not one of the options.

The second “surprise” was how many times Kaspersky gives me false-positive results. These are irritating. Every time I open Firefox, for instance, it gives me a warning message that a malware program also exhibits similar properties. For just about every program I install, the “K” gives me some sort of warning message.

This is unacceptable to me. I only want a warning message if there is actually a threat to worry about. I know that there are hosts of malware out there that masquerade as something else. But please, only tell me about it if it is the actual malware. Useless pop-ups just create a source of aggravation.

For me, it is time to uninstall the “K” and switch to either AVG Free or Microsoft Security Essentials (at this point, I’m not sure which I will decide upon).

Goodbye Windows 7

The time has finally come for me to retire my reliance on Windows. Not that Windows is a bad operating system--I've used it since Windows 3.1--and every iteration in between (with the exception of not using Windows NT until the 4.0 version. In between then and now, I've also tried some other, commercial, non-Microsoft OSes along the way. The first was OS/2 version 3.0. Personally I liked OS/2. The day I decided to upgrade my computer, I went to Best Buy in my hometown and bought OS/2 Warp 4.0. While in the parking lot, I changed my mind and was able to return it (seeing that it had not been opened) and I exchanged it for the brand new Windows 95. I never regretted that decision.
Later, at the end of the 20th century, I bought an operating system called "BeOS." It was made with modern computers in mind. Since it was new, it did not need to be backward compatible with previous versions.
Originally the folks at BeOS made their operating system to be compatible with the Macintosh Power-PC architecture. Until a few years ago, I never owned a Mac, so I got the Intel-compatible version of BeOS (though I've always built my computers with AMD processors).
BeOS was technologically superior to any other OS out there--it just never got the market share. There was an office suite that was native to it--but it was too expensive for most enthusiasts. At that time, Linux wasn't ready for prime time. I purchased both the commercial versions of Red Hat Desktop and a German distribution called SUSE.
Fast-forward 12 years.
Linux has come a long way. I have tried many different distributions, and the one that I find that I like the best is called “Ultimate Edition 2.7.”
It is based upon the latest version of Ubuntu and it is very polished and very mature. Everything just seems to work in it.
One frustration that I have had with my laptop is with distributions based upon Linux distros that use the Red Hat Pack Manager solution for software installation.
I have tried Fedora (open source desktop project of Red Hat), Mandriva, and OpenSuse, and none of them work with my wireless network card. Everything appears to work, but no packets are exchanged between my router and my computer. I can even ping websites, but cannot get the web pages to load. I even opened my home network entirely and it still would not work.
But distributions based up the Debian .deb package management system appear to work flawlessly.
So far I have had zero trouble with making the switch to Linux. The only thing I haven't been able to get working is DVD ripping. So for now Windows Vista is on my desktop and DVDShrink & DVDDecrypter are working well over there. If I can get open source software working to do this, I think my desktop may get an Open-Suse makeover.
I'm so confident this time that I sold my copy of Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay.
Wish me luck.