Monthly Archive for June, 2008

75% MS Free… again

Published
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on June 28, 2008
in Computers
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I know you won’t find this terribly interesting, but since I have little else to talk about… I’ll tell you anyway.

I installed the latest stable, 64-bit AMD release of FreeBSD 7… about 6 times now. Luckily, as I’m building the system from scratch and already have all my important stuff backed-up, it’s a very quick process (about 15 minutes).

It’s been awhile since I’ve run this OS, so I’ve spent considerable effort trying out the latest versions of the various desktop environments and window managers out there. Last time I used it, Gnome with Enlightenment was the ‘hot ticket’. But in keeping up (and possibly surpassing) the eye candy of Vista and Leopard, there is Compiz Fusion.

Unfortunately, there isn’t yet a driver for my video card that supports it. For the time-being, I’m running a vanilla KDE 3, but I’m tempted to try to install KDE 4.

So far, the major ‘con’ of the migration has been version conflicts with dependency components when installing things like Firefox. But by the 3rd re-install I learned not to mix using ‘packages’ and ‘ports’. While the ‘packages’ install much quicker, they are pre-built binaries made to be generic. Installing from ‘ports’, on the other hand, means I get freshly compiled apps on my machine based on my specific config. The result is that by sticking with ‘ports’, though it takes much longer to install, everything runs MUCH smoother and faster.

The other drawbacks are:

  • Netflix requires Microsoft’s DRM in order to watch movies online… and the only workaround is to run a full-blown, fully legal/licensed version of Windows in a virtual machine. So I guess I’ll be watching my movies on my laptop
  • Flash support in Firefox on FreeBSD is limited. I installed gnash so I could watch YouTube videos. While it works, it leaves a lot to be desired. I’ll probably experiment with some other options.

Beyond that, I’m pretty happy with it so far.

PS. I’m only 75% free, because I still run Vista on the laptop, though I use OpenOffice instead of MS Office.

Once again, I’m fed up

Published
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on June 24, 2008
in Computers
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About 6 or 8 months ago I bought a new HP Pavilion desktop. It came pre-installed with Windows Vista. While I liked the interface at first, I really wanted dual monitor support so that I could watch my Scottrade account on one screen and work on the other. Well, Vista didn’t allow for that easily because it couldn’t load two video drivers at the same time… so I “upgraded” back to Windows XP.

I was soooo friggin’ amazed at the performance improvement XP has over Vista. I mean, sure Vista has some nice bells and whistles… but I found I didn’t use most of them. I was sorta’ excited to finally get to use Windows Media Center… but I find myself using WinAmp most of the time instead. Media Center wasn’t as user-friendly as I had hoped.

But, about a month ago I found my XP install a bit cludgy due to all the program installs, uninstalls and reinstalls… but I left my master XP discs at home. My only hope was to install Vista from the ‘recovery sector’ on my desktop. So I rebuilt the thing from scratch.

Long story short, it’s only been a month now, and I’m ready to go back to FreeBSD! I am so frustrated with the slowness and frequent “Would you like to report this error to Microsoft?” prompts whenever Firefox or some other application quits working. As this is actually my primary work computer, I feel lucky that I haven’t yet lost anything important. Good thing I’m a DR guy.

A few more interesting things on YouTube

Published
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on June 12, 2008
in Personal
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So wrong…

I’m tired

Published
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on June 1, 2008
in Personal
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It’s been a little over a month since I posted… and since I temporarily relocated to Los Angeles. Sorry about that.

First, the work has been awesome. In a nutshell, I’m helping one of the country’s largest mortgage lenders in preparing for large-scale business interruptions… while at the same time keeping in mind that their entire industry is currently suffering a large-scale crisis. While there isn’t much I can do to prevent mortgage foreclosures, I feel good about the fact that my client is doing quite a bit to assist homeowners in avoiding foreclosure and my work helps to ensure they could keep up these efforts if/when faced with a business-interrupting disaster. So, if you’re a homeowner with a mortgage or HELOC through my client, and you’re currently working with them to avoid default and to protect your credit rating, you can rest assured that an earthquake, hurricane or pandemic flu outbreak won’t impact their ability to work with you just as they always have.

Second, life in LA is quite a bit different than what I’m used to. Many of you know that my house in Indiana is my ‘fortress of solitude’ in that it is a small little place in the country, the property (about 3 acres) is mostly wooded and very quiet and peaceful. In contrast, I’m currently staying in an apartment in north Los Angeles, Highland Park to be specific. The view outside my apartment is of the 110 freeway. I mean… I’m so close to the 110 that I have to adjust the volume on my TV to account for traffic noise, turning it up so that I can hear over the traffic but not so loud as to disturb my neighbors.

Speaking of ‘Highland Park”, maybe you read about the 14 year-old girl killed by stray gunfire on Memorial Day. This happened just a few blocks from where I’m staying. I admit that I moved here looking for the cheapest rent within reasonable driving-distance to my client’s office, and didn’t do much research into the area itself. It’s not the nicest part of town, but it’s not the worst I’ve seen.

Totally unrelated, this is hilarious… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAu39I5QOUc