Courtesy of dailymail.co.uk
My initial comment about this was how much I love the caption under one of the pictures.
"Bringing out the big guns: Armed federal police prepare to patrol the streets as they arrive in Ciudad Juarez yesterday"
What strikes me the most about this article is not the number of murders in one month (250) but the fact that there's already 2500 troops there. This is a city of 1.6 million people and there were 250 people killed last month. This isn't a city, it's a war zone.
Questions worth considering upon reading this article:
Is sending in more federal troops merely going to displace this problem while murder rates drop to "an acceptable level"? What will be the measure of progress? Is this "iron fist" rationale the best way to deal with organizations that are above the law? How long can an occupation of a city like this continue? How long will it take before the local military officers get bought out to look the other way? What's to stop the cartels from working with the military against each other and thus letting the military do their dirty work (by raiding, arresting, and hampering) in the struggle against their opponents?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
MyFace/SpaceBook
Social networking sites have gone from popular, to overboard, to irritating, and now they're getting downright obnoxious. Everyone has to add clutter to their page to show their individuality. I liked facebook once upon a time because it was clean. I did the myspace thing because it was easier to keep tabs on music groups. Myspace was (in my eyes) for people who can't spell HTML and yet wanted a gaudy 'pimped out' page. Facebook was once for those that wanted to stalk easier because of how lax people had their security settings and were gullible enough to fill in all of their personal info.
Today, both sites are overrun with widgets, plugins, apps, and overall bling which i find to be obnoxious. I don't care about what you're doing via twitter, who you superpoked, or what music plays every time someone loads your page.
I've decided to create a name for these people. They will be the ones that 'pimp out' their pages. They are the ones that toss so much multimedia content on their page that it's slow to load irregardless of connection speed and machine performance. These are the people who have a ton of youtube clips embedded in addition to different apps that spam their friends into submission to join them.
Both sites have picked up more and more traits of the other and it's getting difficult to tell them apart. Because of the blending that has happened between both sides, i've decided that they need a new name. A name that not only reflects what has happened to the sites, but also their users.
I propose MyFace.
MyFace will be used by me as an insult referencing these people. MyFace is my new catchall word for these sites and their individuality craving, bling polluting, bandwidth consuming, eye sores that people create.
Oooo... someone has just sent me a beer on MyFace and i need to go return the favor!
***********
(EDIT)
http://www.myface.com/
Looks like i'm going with spacebook instead of MyFace. Doh!
Today, both sites are overrun with widgets, plugins, apps, and overall bling which i find to be obnoxious. I don't care about what you're doing via twitter, who you superpoked, or what music plays every time someone loads your page.
I've decided to create a name for these people. They will be the ones that 'pimp out' their pages. They are the ones that toss so much multimedia content on their page that it's slow to load irregardless of connection speed and machine performance. These are the people who have a ton of youtube clips embedded in addition to different apps that spam their friends into submission to join them.
Both sites have picked up more and more traits of the other and it's getting difficult to tell them apart. Because of the blending that has happened between both sides, i've decided that they need a new name. A name that not only reflects what has happened to the sites, but also their users.
I propose MyFace.
MyFace will be used by me as an insult referencing these people. MyFace is my new catchall word for these sites and their individuality craving, bling polluting, bandwidth consuming, eye sores that people create.
Oooo... someone has just sent me a beer on MyFace and i need to go return the favor!
***********
(EDIT)
http://www.myface.com/
Looks like i'm going with spacebook instead of MyFace. Doh!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
People Amuse Me
I love people watching. When i do this, some days i can almost hear a British/BBC voice doing a commentary as events are unfolding.
Yesterday the city closed off a major street near me because of a sink hole. Cops blocked both ends of the street and bridge for obvious safety concerns. I wandered over there to check it out for myself as a pedestrian because i honestly had nothing better to do and it was a nice day out.
It was approximately 5pm when i was on the scene. I wish i had a web cam to set up and stream this because it was just too funny for me. Here's a squad car parked blocking traffic with caution tape up and the road is clearly closed. As i walked by i saw no less than 3 cars try to turn onto the street and go under the caution tape. These people were promptly discouraged by a quite angry police officer who was not afraid to yell at them.
Here's an example of what i heard:
"Hey! The road is closed."
"Where do you think you're going?"
(my favorite...)
"Why do you think i'm parked blocking traffic? I don't care if you need to go through. You need to go around. I'm hear to keep you safe and i don't care where you think you need to go."
I've seen similar things happen with people and police officers when they're blocking traffic and it never ceases to amaze me. I normally do my polite head nod or wave acknowledging that i see them and go on about my business while keeping out of their way.
Once upon a time i thought i wanted to be a police officer. For various reasons, i decided that it wasn't for me. I can't help but think what i would have said in those situations. In hindsight i don't think i would have been nearly as diplomatic with these people. Perhaps it's for the better that i never went into that career field after all... :)
*******
Last summer while riding my bike i saw a car cut around an ambulance into oncoming traffic because they clearly were in a hurry. The ambulance hit their lights and waved the person to pull over and proceeded to ream them out. Technically this would be an illegal stop and the ambulance drivers could have gotten in hot water. Yeah. Right. Good luck finding me someone who will prosecute THAT one.
*******
These incidents are funny at face value for me but they're also saddening when i stop to think about it. Is it a lack of respect for authority figures that i see? Is it people being too selfish and into their own personal lives/interests to consider others? Is this summed up as "me first" mentality? Is this just blatant stupidity? Have we as a society lost all sense of etiquette?
I try to not read too much into peoples actions but it's hard. Their actions are funny to me but after a while i can't help but wonder what inspired them. I've always believed that "actions speak louder than words" and so these people are saying a LOT about themselves.
Pardon me for ending abruptly. There's a bridge that's out and i need to go have another laugh at other peoples expense.
Yesterday the city closed off a major street near me because of a sink hole. Cops blocked both ends of the street and bridge for obvious safety concerns. I wandered over there to check it out for myself as a pedestrian because i honestly had nothing better to do and it was a nice day out.
It was approximately 5pm when i was on the scene. I wish i had a web cam to set up and stream this because it was just too funny for me. Here's a squad car parked blocking traffic with caution tape up and the road is clearly closed. As i walked by i saw no less than 3 cars try to turn onto the street and go under the caution tape. These people were promptly discouraged by a quite angry police officer who was not afraid to yell at them.
Here's an example of what i heard:
"Hey! The road is closed."
"Where do you think you're going?"
(my favorite...)
"Why do you think i'm parked blocking traffic? I don't care if you need to go through. You need to go around. I'm hear to keep you safe and i don't care where you think you need to go."
I've seen similar things happen with people and police officers when they're blocking traffic and it never ceases to amaze me. I normally do my polite head nod or wave acknowledging that i see them and go on about my business while keeping out of their way.
Once upon a time i thought i wanted to be a police officer. For various reasons, i decided that it wasn't for me. I can't help but think what i would have said in those situations. In hindsight i don't think i would have been nearly as diplomatic with these people. Perhaps it's for the better that i never went into that career field after all... :)
*******
Last summer while riding my bike i saw a car cut around an ambulance into oncoming traffic because they clearly were in a hurry. The ambulance hit their lights and waved the person to pull over and proceeded to ream them out. Technically this would be an illegal stop and the ambulance drivers could have gotten in hot water. Yeah. Right. Good luck finding me someone who will prosecute THAT one.
*******
These incidents are funny at face value for me but they're also saddening when i stop to think about it. Is it a lack of respect for authority figures that i see? Is it people being too selfish and into their own personal lives/interests to consider others? Is this summed up as "me first" mentality? Is this just blatant stupidity? Have we as a society lost all sense of etiquette?
I try to not read too much into peoples actions but it's hard. Their actions are funny to me but after a while i can't help but wonder what inspired them. I've always believed that "actions speak louder than words" and so these people are saying a LOT about themselves.
Pardon me for ending abruptly. There's a bridge that's out and i need to go have another laugh at other peoples expense.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Ironies in life (II)
- Getting laid off exactly 2 years to the day that i ended my last "professional" job which lead to my ongoing job hunt.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Do Something About It
"If you don't like your situation, then do something about it."
These are words I live by. A long time ago I became empowered the first time I left a job that I didn't like. In hindsight, the feeling was quite liberating. No longer was I stuck going somewhere and doing something i grew to hate. Taking control of my destiny for the first time like that had a lasting impact on me and my approach to life in general today.
How should someone like myself then deal with a person who is in denial over how much they hate their job and has no ambition to advance or even leave? They say they don't hate their job but then all they ever do is bitch about people there. They refuse to even explore other options because they "don't want to compete with those that need it worse".
We all have complaints about work. We all complain to others about some aspect of work. There's nothing wrong with this and it's perfectly healthy.
I understand that insurance is a strong motivating factor for staying somewhere. There's also the fear of the unknown. It's clearly difficult to leave a job for another and expect a similar salary. Is not a pay cut worth the mental health? Does it make sense to stay somewhere that you have no hope for advancement and you voice how much you hate it? I'm not saying you have to have lofty goals and your entire career mapped out. How hard is it to want something just a little better in life?
In my eyes, i equate this as a personality that is destined for abusive relationships. Too and timid to take a stand. Denying their own words and justifying actions as "not all that bad" or "just venting". It's funny. When i hear the complaints about work and the subsequent denials of them, i keep thinking to myself "honestly officer, i just fell!"
These are words I live by. A long time ago I became empowered the first time I left a job that I didn't like. In hindsight, the feeling was quite liberating. No longer was I stuck going somewhere and doing something i grew to hate. Taking control of my destiny for the first time like that had a lasting impact on me and my approach to life in general today.
How should someone like myself then deal with a person who is in denial over how much they hate their job and has no ambition to advance or even leave? They say they don't hate their job but then all they ever do is bitch about people there. They refuse to even explore other options because they "don't want to compete with those that need it worse".
We all have complaints about work. We all complain to others about some aspect of work. There's nothing wrong with this and it's perfectly healthy.
I understand that insurance is a strong motivating factor for staying somewhere. There's also the fear of the unknown. It's clearly difficult to leave a job for another and expect a similar salary. Is not a pay cut worth the mental health? Does it make sense to stay somewhere that you have no hope for advancement and you voice how much you hate it? I'm not saying you have to have lofty goals and your entire career mapped out. How hard is it to want something just a little better in life?
In my eyes, i equate this as a personality that is destined for abusive relationships. Too and timid to take a stand. Denying their own words and justifying actions as "not all that bad" or "just venting". It's funny. When i hear the complaints about work and the subsequent denials of them, i keep thinking to myself "honestly officer, i just fell!"
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
He's an "intelligent" guy...
Intelligent.
in·tel·li·gent
–adjective
1. having good understanding or a high mental capacity; quick to comprehend, as persons or animals: an intelligent student.
2. displaying or characterized by quickness of understanding, sound thought, or good judgment: an intelligent reply.
3. having the faculty of reasoning and understanding; possessing intelligence: intelligent beings in outer space.
4. Computers. pertaining to the ability to do data processing locally; smart: An intelligent terminal can edit input before transmission to a host computer. Compare dumb (def. 8).
5. Archaic. having understanding or knowledge (usually fol. by of).
I hear that word thrown around as an adjective a lot these days. Not really sure if this is a new trend or if it's more coincidental.
What is it then that makes a person earn this description? Is it formal education? Reading habits? Job experience? Comprehension of vague abstract concepts? Or is it others perceptions of you that earn you this branding?
"He's an intelligent guy..."
A formal education doesn't necessarily equate intelligence. I think we all know someone that has an advanced education (degree, certifications, etc) that can be classified as "an educated idiot". Having witnessed this first hand, going to college doesn't necessarily mean that an individual is capable of retaining what they were exposed to. How many times have you taken a class (even in high school) and forgotten the bulk of the information after the final exam? With how common this is for people, is it that far of a stretch of the imagination to assume that this happens on all levels of education? We need only look at pop cultures TV show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" to see first hand how much we feel that we knew at one time but then promptly forgot because it was never reinforced. All you need to do is have a flash back to grammar structure in grade school and you'll know exactly what i'm referring to!
Does the fact that you've read the works Plato and Shakespeare equate as intelligence? Do you earn the brand of "intelligent" based on the fact that you've read a number of books about etymology? If not, then why is it that people continue to refer to a person like that as "intelligent"?
A person who can read a document and comprehend it immediately is considered intelligent. A person who can listen listen to something explained, interact with the presenter, and comprehend the topic is not considered as intelligent because they had to have outside help. Never mind that these are different styles of learning.
I guess i'm not "intelligent" and it's time for me to swallow that bitter pill. I don't read all that much these days and never cared for the deep thinking philosophy or literature genres (history was my passion). I need someone to explain to me abstract concepts rather than reading documentation. I graduated from college but then didn't retain much in most of my subjects (much like my peers). I'm comfortable with this so don't patronize me by calling me something that i'm clearly not.
No one has ever called me "intelligent" and, based on the above criteria, i'm comfortable knowing that they never will.
in·tel·li·gent
–adjective
1. having good understanding or a high mental capacity; quick to comprehend, as persons or animals: an intelligent student.
2. displaying or characterized by quickness of understanding, sound thought, or good judgment: an intelligent reply.
3. having the faculty of reasoning and understanding; possessing intelligence: intelligent beings in outer space.
4. Computers. pertaining to the ability to do data processing locally; smart: An intelligent terminal can edit input before transmission to a host computer. Compare dumb (def. 8).
5. Archaic. having understanding or knowledge (usually fol. by of).
I hear that word thrown around as an adjective a lot these days. Not really sure if this is a new trend or if it's more coincidental.
What is it then that makes a person earn this description? Is it formal education? Reading habits? Job experience? Comprehension of vague abstract concepts? Or is it others perceptions of you that earn you this branding?
"He's an intelligent guy..."
A formal education doesn't necessarily equate intelligence. I think we all know someone that has an advanced education (degree, certifications, etc) that can be classified as "an educated idiot". Having witnessed this first hand, going to college doesn't necessarily mean that an individual is capable of retaining what they were exposed to. How many times have you taken a class (even in high school) and forgotten the bulk of the information after the final exam? With how common this is for people, is it that far of a stretch of the imagination to assume that this happens on all levels of education? We need only look at pop cultures TV show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" to see first hand how much we feel that we knew at one time but then promptly forgot because it was never reinforced. All you need to do is have a flash back to grammar structure in grade school and you'll know exactly what i'm referring to!
Does the fact that you've read the works Plato and Shakespeare equate as intelligence? Do you earn the brand of "intelligent" based on the fact that you've read a number of books about etymology? If not, then why is it that people continue to refer to a person like that as "intelligent"?
A person who can read a document and comprehend it immediately is considered intelligent. A person who can listen listen to something explained, interact with the presenter, and comprehend the topic is not considered as intelligent because they had to have outside help. Never mind that these are different styles of learning.
I guess i'm not "intelligent" and it's time for me to swallow that bitter pill. I don't read all that much these days and never cared for the deep thinking philosophy or literature genres (history was my passion). I need someone to explain to me abstract concepts rather than reading documentation. I graduated from college but then didn't retain much in most of my subjects (much like my peers). I'm comfortable with this so don't patronize me by calling me something that i'm clearly not.
No one has ever called me "intelligent" and, based on the above criteria, i'm comfortable knowing that they never will.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A-Rod and Baseball
Knowing that professional sports have become more business oriented than actual sporting, it's harder and harder for even casual fans to stomach what is happening. In case you've been living under a rock MLB is dealing with skyrocketing salaries, a team that spent 250,000,000 this off season just to sign 3 players, prices continually going up, $6 for a beer served by someone making just over minimum wage, a commissioner that has reportedly earned 18,000,000 last year, and a drug testing policy that is arguably more lax than even the NBA. To sum up the situation, people (not just fans) are getting fed up.
To address the drug/steroid problems, one can't help but come back to the money issues. That being said, I'm trying to avoid that topic but it will come up.
I enjoyed this editorial:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dwyre-a-rod10-2009feb10,0,3614747.column
To address the drug/steroid problems, one can't help but come back to the money issues. That being said, I'm trying to avoid that topic but it will come up.
I enjoyed this editorial:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dwyre-a-rod10-2009feb10,0,3614747.column
Monday, February 9, 2009
Facebook - Jobs
Mental note: Check Facebook profile before applying for a job.
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/jobsearchblogs/a/jobsearchblog.htm
No i haven't learned this lesson the hard way. This is my way of reminding myself (and others) to not shoot themselves in the foot. I've changed my profile image from a Smithwicks logo to an image of a Rib Eye steak. It's far more politically correct than a beer logo and shouldn't hurt my chances with future employers. I'm still debating on whether i want to change it to no image vs the steak but I feel that this should suffice. I find myself questioning how the image could be interpreted and in the end i don't see anything negative about the steak image.
Now it's time to cross my fingers and hope that this step of caution is worth it.
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/jobsearchblogs/a/jobsearchblog.htm
No i haven't learned this lesson the hard way. This is my way of reminding myself (and others) to not shoot themselves in the foot. I've changed my profile image from a Smithwicks logo to an image of a Rib Eye steak. It's far more politically correct than a beer logo and shouldn't hurt my chances with future employers. I'm still debating on whether i want to change it to no image vs the steak but I feel that this should suffice. I find myself questioning how the image could be interpreted and in the end i don't see anything negative about the steak image.
Now it's time to cross my fingers and hope that this step of caution is worth it.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Lesson Learned - Ubuntu
I've clearly been using windows too much. Despite warnings from my friend/mentor, my issues this weekend were my own fault. I accepted full responsibility for my ignorance surrounding the actions taken.
Saturday, my Ubuntu 8.04 machine notified me that i had "critical security updates." No new kernel. Some of the updates were for VIM which made me "wtf" and look closely at what was being offered. It was mostly libs and so i grabbed them blindly. After system restart, sound was no longer working and Pidgin would freeze as it loaded. Much like winXP and SP2, unexpected things broke.
I tried looking through forums about updates, sound, and Pidgin breaking for others but no luck. This being a new build, i opted for the fix that was the most drastic but would get me up and running quickest. Upgrade to 8.10 time!
No luck. My machine felt laggy and hesitated a lot more AND sound was still broken. So much for that idea. All that's left was to reinstall. After consulting with a friend, i had a better game plan as to how i would configure my setup.
Previously i had left the install as vanilla as possible and so everything was on one partition which means everything would be lost. I was advised to create a separate partition for /home which would mean i wouldn't lose my files again. What a novel idea! As i was in the partition manager during install, it dawned on me that i can have /home be a separate drive and so i plugged in a spare 40g sata drive. When all was said and done, the mount point for / would become the 40g drive and 1.5tb would be allocated to /home. Let the install begin!
Install was no problem. Everything was working fine. Success. Wait a minute. I can't leave a sleeping beast alone, can i?
Yesterday I reinstalled again blowing away all system files while keeping /home on the seperate drive. During install it found /home no problem and asked if i wanted to import the data and settings from there. Sure. Why not?
After install was completed and i logged in, my background and files were intact. Woohoo! It makes sense that all of these files and settings exist in /home and since that was untouched then everything should look the same again (excluding lack of programs). Just because it makes sense doesn't mean that I'll truly grasp it until the first time i do it though.
If not for me blindly trusting the "updates", i feel i wouldn't have learned this tidbit for a long time. It's refreshing to have a sense of safety now knowing that whatever i wind up having in /home will remain intact after cleaning up yet another mess. I was genuinely pissed when that sound issue arose. Rather than whine and complain and get bitter about it, i used it as an excuse to try something new and different. Today i sit here knowing that i have absorbed another piece of the puzzle that i'm trying to conquer in my spare time.
Now... I need a beer BADLY!!! :)
Saturday, my Ubuntu 8.04 machine notified me that i had "critical security updates." No new kernel. Some of the updates were for VIM which made me "wtf" and look closely at what was being offered. It was mostly libs and so i grabbed them blindly. After system restart, sound was no longer working and Pidgin would freeze as it loaded. Much like winXP and SP2, unexpected things broke.
I tried looking through forums about updates, sound, and Pidgin breaking for others but no luck. This being a new build, i opted for the fix that was the most drastic but would get me up and running quickest. Upgrade to 8.10 time!
No luck. My machine felt laggy and hesitated a lot more AND sound was still broken. So much for that idea. All that's left was to reinstall. After consulting with a friend, i had a better game plan as to how i would configure my setup.
Previously i had left the install as vanilla as possible and so everything was on one partition which means everything would be lost. I was advised to create a separate partition for /home which would mean i wouldn't lose my files again. What a novel idea! As i was in the partition manager during install, it dawned on me that i can have /home be a separate drive and so i plugged in a spare 40g sata drive. When all was said and done, the mount point for / would become the 40g drive and 1.5tb would be allocated to /home. Let the install begin!
Install was no problem. Everything was working fine. Success. Wait a minute. I can't leave a sleeping beast alone, can i?
Yesterday I reinstalled again blowing away all system files while keeping /home on the seperate drive. During install it found /home no problem and asked if i wanted to import the data and settings from there. Sure. Why not?
After install was completed and i logged in, my background and files were intact. Woohoo! It makes sense that all of these files and settings exist in /home and since that was untouched then everything should look the same again (excluding lack of programs). Just because it makes sense doesn't mean that I'll truly grasp it until the first time i do it though.
If not for me blindly trusting the "updates", i feel i wouldn't have learned this tidbit for a long time. It's refreshing to have a sense of safety now knowing that whatever i wind up having in /home will remain intact after cleaning up yet another mess. I was genuinely pissed when that sound issue arose. Rather than whine and complain and get bitter about it, i used it as an excuse to try something new and different. Today i sit here knowing that i have absorbed another piece of the puzzle that i'm trying to conquer in my spare time.
Now... I need a beer BADLY!!! :)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
New and Improved!
I've been running Ubuntu 8.04 for a couple weeks now. Got sick of the constant M$ updates, adware, and patches and decided i was ready for a new challenge. This coincided with building a new machine and what better way to break it in than with a new OS, right?
The stats:
Why Ubuntu? Why not just install my copy of XP again and streamline it? Why not jump onto Vista or xp-64? I've been using windows for 10 years now and things have gotten boring in my life. Everyone is eager to jump on the M$ bashing boat but most refuse to put their money (or OS) where their mouth is. Out of the box Ubuntu mostly works with minimal swearing and headaches which is ideal for my home machine. I need an OS that won't cause me headaches and allow me to web bowse, IRC, IM, torrent, and listen to music. I don't have the patience anymore dealing with trying to remove some malware like Vundo that somehow got past my AV and decides to pop up 10 minutes before i leave for work. I don't have the patience to go looking for yet another burning program because i have an NRG file and i don't have Nero installed anymore. I don't have the patience to go out there and find a program that will make an iso image that i can later mount for VM's. I don't have the patience to go out and find yet a different app that will let me mount an iso file. This leaves me with Linux.
The reality is, i personally identify with linux more than i do with windows. I like how straight forward linux is. Once you find a decent text editor, linux is a bunch of conf files that need to be uncommented and edited. I can't play games on it easily yet but then i never played many games to begin with. Burning an iso was idiot proof with the default burning software (brasero) which was a huge relief. Gone are the days of fighting wth Nero and Power ISO and every other burner app i had to download just to get something unique to burn.
I'm still learning the structure gradually and so i have only a vague idea as to what these gremlins are doing. I don't care. Gone are the days of wondering what malware got hooked in startup in the registry. I've only begun to learn concepts of how to shell script. I don't care. I don't exactly know how to make a proper .bat or .vbs either so what's the point? I like the fact that most things log to an intelligible log file and so you can actually decipher what is going on from reading that file as opposed to looking at the cryptic event viewer in windows. There are days that i used to wonder if you needed an MCSE to understand the event viewer and what it was trying to tell you. I now have a machine in my life that i'm interested in and will help keep me in the work mindset more consistently. My machine is logical. It spews info into /var/log/messages where i can see problems arise in real time rather than waiting for a BSOD.
I'm home.
The stats:
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
- SAMSUNG 2232BW+ Black 22" 2ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1(1000:1)
- EVGA 512-P3-N807-RX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
- EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
- Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
- Samsung dvd burner
Why Ubuntu? Why not just install my copy of XP again and streamline it? Why not jump onto Vista or xp-64? I've been using windows for 10 years now and things have gotten boring in my life. Everyone is eager to jump on the M$ bashing boat but most refuse to put their money (or OS) where their mouth is. Out of the box Ubuntu mostly works with minimal swearing and headaches which is ideal for my home machine. I need an OS that won't cause me headaches and allow me to web bowse, IRC, IM, torrent, and listen to music. I don't have the patience anymore dealing with trying to remove some malware like Vundo that somehow got past my AV and decides to pop up 10 minutes before i leave for work. I don't have the patience to go looking for yet another burning program because i have an NRG file and i don't have Nero installed anymore. I don't have the patience to go out there and find a program that will make an iso image that i can later mount for VM's. I don't have the patience to go out and find yet a different app that will let me mount an iso file. This leaves me with Linux.
The reality is, i personally identify with linux more than i do with windows. I like how straight forward linux is. Once you find a decent text editor, linux is a bunch of conf files that need to be uncommented and edited. I can't play games on it easily yet but then i never played many games to begin with. Burning an iso was idiot proof with the default burning software (brasero) which was a huge relief. Gone are the days of fighting wth Nero and Power ISO and every other burner app i had to download just to get something unique to burn.
I'm still learning the structure gradually and so i have only a vague idea as to what these gremlins are doing. I don't care. Gone are the days of wondering what malware got hooked in startup in the registry. I've only begun to learn concepts of how to shell script. I don't care. I don't exactly know how to make a proper .bat or .vbs either so what's the point? I like the fact that most things log to an intelligible log file and so you can actually decipher what is going on from reading that file as opposed to looking at the cryptic event viewer in windows. There are days that i used to wonder if you needed an MCSE to understand the event viewer and what it was trying to tell you. I now have a machine in my life that i'm interested in and will help keep me in the work mindset more consistently. My machine is logical. It spews info into /var/log/messages where i can see problems arise in real time rather than waiting for a BSOD.
I'm home.
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