H.S. Truman

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I feel pretty helpless because I'm sure that there isn't much I can to to stop the bot nets from using my name.

Today was a mild day. Of the 560 spam email messages I received in the last 12 hours, after I deleted the items that were in languages I couldn't read, had some variation of Viagra in the subject or sender, or that were sent by Post Master or System Administrator, that got me down to 147. It's not too bad to scan 147 messages.

It ebbs and flows. Seems like every three or four months my address is used for spam by someone.

I feel a little bad about it, but I know the subject lines or senders make it pretty clear the email is spam and the recipients probably don't give it much thought.

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The ones I hoped were correct... were not. Among these was the clock that alarmed me from slumber. This is a clock that allegedly sets itself. However, it did not seem to realize the importance of tracking the change from CST to CDT.

I am only angry that I didn't assume it wouldn't work. Shame on me, right?

Can we please end this charade? The shift of time does not change anything in my life. There is no gain.

So I skipped my morning bathing ritual, skipped making coffee or trying to eat, and even skipped trying to find clean clothes. I went straight to work without ado. I still arrived late.

For what?

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Her heart gave out today.

She was with Sommer for almost 16 years. She was a champion Cairn Terrier (Nightfalls Nevermore) and had birthed seven litters.

I don't know what I will miss most, it's so soon, but she was the cuddliest dog ever and the Queen of the House. She had the most adorable pink ears and button nose.

She lives on with us through her grandson Bear (Windways Amnot), but the house is definitely not the same without her.

Goodnight, baby girl. We love you.

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I've been running Vista (non-Aero) on an old Dell laptop. It has been slow but stable. Mostly usable.

After the service pack allegedly reverts changes (I've tried twice) Vista doesn't do anything more annoying than tell me there is a new service pack update to install. There is no loss of data or functionality. No new error messages.

But it's pretty disappointing. The Release Candidate for XP SP3 worked like a charm on an even older laptop and Windows XP seems to perform as well as it always has, if not better.

At this point, the Vista laptop is looking like an excellent candidate for conversion to Ubuntu.

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I pretty much hang on your every word, most every day. I love keeping myself current with up-to-the-minute news and rumors. I love it. Please don't stop.

But I ask of you one thing: Please do not assume with every product release that the product was designed with you and only you in mind. Not every one has the same set of constraints as you, nor the same needs, nor the same ability to use technology.

Further, if the product does not meet your personal needs, please do not use your dismay as a launching point into the attack of a series of products or manufacturers.

It's OK to say "It won't work for me. And here is why..."

Recognize that while your point of view is valid, your experiences are unique and not the same as mine. There is a reasonably good chance I don't agree with everything you outline.

Something that you may not appreciate very much is something that I may hold very dear.

Stop the anger, please.

Give me "pros" and "cons."

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The shortest day of the year, and the birth of light.

I like learning about the old ways.

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I am excited, but guarded. For example, when the iPhone was officially announced, I really did believe it was the right device for me. But, in truth, even though the OS it runs resembles OS X at least superficially, that's not enough.

The fiasco recently with the breakage following the last iPhone system software update underscores what for me are critical failings of the device:

• I can't install applications I want.
• Applications written for OS X don't work, even if I could
• It has to be activated before I can use it.

Let me be the first two say that if Apple released a portable device with wireless connectivity that got me around all of those issues, I would be in line.

I am not so enamored of my Treo, or the Blackberry, or Windows Mobile that I won't consider alternatives. And let me just say that I am actively looking for alternatives.

I want a portable device that's more portable than a notebook, that's as powerful as a notebook.

I want to be able to run a real web browser on it, including support for Flash and Java and tabbed browsing. FireFox or Opera, please!

I want to be able to install an RSS reader. I don't like web-based services.

I want to be able to run an FTP/SFTP client.

I want a real email client configurable for multiple providers.

I want my calendar and contacts. I need them to be available when I don't have access to the web.

I want real document editing capabilities including spell-check.

Right now, my Treo does most of this in a fashion that's workable until I can get to a computer. But the web browser and browsing experience are big, big turn offs. Composing an entry for this web journal on my Treo is so painful that I have stopped trying. I can't use the web interface built-in to the software and the third-party applications I have tried offer some functionality but are not at all what I would call rich clients.

Give me a portable computer.

Don't make me activate it with any provider.

Don't force me to use the synchronization tools provided with a single commercial operating system.

Give me the freedom to install the applications I need. Support third-party development.

Apple could run away with more of my money. I want my next laptop to be an Apple. I'm looking at running an Apple server at my house in the long-term.

But, if Apple keeps putting up more walled gardens, I'm out. I will switch to Linux to get out from DRM and I won't look back.

Intel's work on Linux and Palm's work on Linux could prove to be the right way to go. I still believe Palm has it in them to pull out a winner.

If there is a known-good Linux distro to install on one of the current UMPCs... You will definitely have my attention. If Ubuntu will install and be fully functional on the ASUS EEE PC? Then all of this discussion might be moot.

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Desktop Effects stopped working for me today after running the latest Gutsy updates.

Attempts to turn Desktop Effects on were met with an error message indicating Desktop Effects could not be enabled.

Running compiz from the command line gave me the following output:

Checking for Xgl: not present.
Blacklisted 'ati' driver is in use
aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity

I found the fix here:

Bug #139384 is not in Ubuntu

I am happy again!

Ignorance being bliss, earlier I had written the following:

It's true.

Even a long-time Windows guy can learn to appreciate the true joys of open-source and free software.

Now, I am not a rich man. I am running on a laptop that is close to four years old. Be that as it may, I am also not content to leave well enough alone. Yes, I am a tweaker. And l like a pretty operating system. I like Vista better than XP. And I really like Mac OS X.

So, when I installed Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 5), I had to see what the desktop effects were.

On a Dell Latitude D600 with a 1400x1050 display, the effects were... disappointing. At first. In fact, they didn't work.

Let me first say the Ubuntu installer did detect the correct display resolution and 24-bit color depth. This is an improvement over 6.10, which detected the correct resolution but only 16-bit color.

So, off the bat, I was really pleased. It took me a while to learn what and how to edit to fix the issues in the past. So not having to edit the xorg.conf file immediately was a nice plus.

Until it was time to try the Desktop Effects.

Lucky for me, because of the wonders of the intarweb, I was able to find a lot of different advice on things to try to get 3D (and therefore the Compiz-Beryl Ubuntu Desktop Effects) working. I know that on a newer chipset the benefits are even more fluid and dramatic, but I'm pretty happy with what I got the old laptop to do.

My config is not flawless, but it does use the open source drivers. There is a pretty detailed explanation of how to use the proprietary ATI drivers, but it didn't work on my laptop. This didn't shock me because the instructions were written for 7.04, which I am clearly not using.

Anything that did not work was stricken from my config files. For example, setting the AGP hardware speed turned out to be detrimental. Setting the write speed killed my display entirely. Out those options went.

I edited the following files like 50 times:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/modules

I added this file because otherwise I would have had to reduce my color depth to 16-bit:

/etc/drirc

Don't try any of the changes I made unless you feel comfortable with editing text files as root. And certainly don't make any changes without first backing up your original configuration files and without knowing how to revert to those files when something goes wrong. Trust me. The display going black is one thing. The display turning off is alarming.

Sources:

Bug 80940
HOWTO: ATI Mobility XGL/Compiz Radeon
D600 xorg.conf
beryl + ubuntu edgy on dell latitude d600

And God bless Google.

***

Also of note? I set the Synaptics trackpad to be the CorePointer, relegating the mouse to "SendCoreEvents." This works wonderfully with external USB mice, yet allows the mouse preferences to actually affect the behavior of the trackpad. The default Ubuntu config still doesn't get this right, even starting with a fresh reformat and the newest installer.

No other changes were required to enable tap-to-click. Tap-and-scroll still doesn't work like it does in other operating systems, but the scrolling zones are enabled, which I can learn to love.

Overall? This is my favorite Ubuntu to date.

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See the Pioneer Press or StarTribune for local updates.

Under the circumstances, it looks like cell service has been cut off in favor or emergency services. I do not know if we will be reachable by telephone, but email and instant messaging work just fine.

I'm not trying to make this all about me, just trying to communicate when some normal channels are not available.

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Be that as it may, I'm still a geek and still interested in new software and new platforms.

So… the Mac Mini I have had lo this past year and a half has suddenly garnered a lot more attention.

Tonight, I found Smultron for HTML editing. It looks simple and powerful and so far I like that. I'm used to editing my HTML in Notepad in Windows. Only recently have I learned the joy of editing in a proper code editor. If I had the money, I would invest in BBEdit. I know it is *the* editor for the Mac. But as I said earlier, I have no money to budget for software or hardware. It was very clear to me instantly on opening Smultron what it does and what it's for. I downloaded NVu as well. Lots of people seem to like it, but I am not a fan of WYSIWYG editing. Though it has a proper and adept code editor, it seemed like a lot of application for someone who as a rule edits a single page at a time and is completely comfortable opening four different web browsers simultaneously to see what happens to his code. Tonight I used Camino, Opera, FireFox and Safari. This was Mac OS night. And FOSS night.

Next, I realized that I needed to edit images. So I pulled down GIMPshop for Mac OS. I am a long time user of Photoshop in the Mac OS and in Windows. Let me just say that, while much improved, I still don't like the GIMPshop interface. Yet, for free, it does exactly what I needed. What's more, I was able to stumble around and finish what I set out to do: I was able to edit three GIF images of the seven at my Hjalmer.com home page. (I know: GIFs. Proprietary format. One of these days I'll modify the images to PNG format, I just haven't got there yet.)

I have been diving headlong into Open Source. And headlong into Mac.

I am a longtime Windows user. Not since the first release like some could say, but I really cut my teeth on Windows 95. For work and for personal use, I have used every operating system Microsoft has released since then.

At this point in my life and my career, however, I'm really getting enamored of the elegance of the Mac OS. Even though I anticipate it will hurt performance, I will likely upgrade my Mini to Mac OS 10.5. I'm not a programmer or a gamer. Despite the fact that the Mini is a G4, it feels a lot faster than a Pentium III running XP—which is what I have been using at home forever. So for browsing, email, RSS and light web design, it's completely adequate and dare I say competent.

I'm still playing with Ubuntu on laptops. I like the Gnome desktop, again simpler as a rule on the surface, despite the fact that I seem to prefer more KDE apps. I'm currently really enjoying the working version of Gutsy Gibbon with the UbuntuStudio interface and applications installed. I think it's as pretty and functional a Linux interface as I have ever seen. The new Ubuntu desktop effects are elegant and they actually work on my dated Pentium M platform.

I'm rambling.

I get giddy learning new things.

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I wanted to love the iPhone. I thought it was very nearly everything I hoped for.

My real love for gadgets and the portable computer began when I started experimenting with the Palm Pilot 1000. I learned Graffiti really well and was using the Pilot to keep a lot of personal information. Contacts, especially. Calendar for birthdays, anniversaries and holidays. Lots of notes. Even some larger texts and books.

I kept graduating to new devices.

I used a Palm Pilot Professional, A Palm III, and then a Palm IIIx. I owned a monochrome Sony Clie and had a 32 meg memory stick full of ebooks.

I had spreadsheets and word processors. I tracked a lot of personal information. I loved how responsive it was. I had it over-clocked and it was speedy. I fantasized that the same CPU behind a 800x600 display would make an ideal ebook reader. That would have been perfect.

And I dropped it face down, shattering the display.

And I dropped a Palm IIIxe face down.

And I tried the PocketPC OS, getting an HP Jornada. I loved it. I had Ethernet cards working in it. I was doing remote consoles and listening to music.

And I dropped it, shattering the screen.

I used a Toshiba Pocket PC which was thin and fast, but not really upgradeable or expandable.

I bought the VGA HP iPaq hx4705. It was a decent MP3 player but I was frustrated with the fact that VGA wasn't supported in Windows Mobile 2003. I ran the hacks, but it wasn't glorious. I bought Windows Mobile 5, but it was a bust. Molasses. The browser wasn't a full browser. I ran out of memory all too often. Resets at least daily were mandatory. And still no true VGA without a hack. Why bother with all that screen if the pixels are all doubled?

All that time, I tried, but the promise was never met. The damned things really depended on a primary PC. They were never designed to BE the primary PC. This I feel was the fundamental failure, that they were afraid to cannibalize sales or go head-to-head with a PC.

Two years ago I bought a notebook with Tablet XP. I hated the tablet part, although it was a fine noteook. It was too heavy to use like a PDA. After teaching myself graffiti, which transferred nicely to the Pocket PC and Windows Mobile, I didn't want to relearn to ink. I had to hold the stylus perpendicular to the tablet surface. What? Who writes like that? And it wasn't thin and light. And it wasn't my old Palm.

I kept fantasizing about a full operating system in something the size of a Palm PC. Real applications and real connectivity.

I owned a Treo 650 smartphone for a year before I really understood how to use the Palm OS without a stylus. Then I became resentful that the d-pad navigation tricks weren't implemented evenly across appplications, or at all in some cases. The old apps don't even respond to it. But still the killer app for me is SMS messaging and the occasional email. And some light RSS. But I kept dropping the damned thing. It's why I had to replace it.

A few months ago, when it was time to replace the Treo 650 or risk it falling apart at any time, I decided to keep the Palm OS. It's an old friend, even though at best it's old. And the pixels are still doubled. Why can't I change that in preferences? It's not even an option.

I knew the iPhone was coming. When it was first announced I announced confidently that it was my next phone. I heard "OS X." I heard "browser" and "connectivity." I assumed real apps. I assumed portable computer.

Then I realized, as it was announced that it would be available through traditional providers, that there was already a problem. Cellular providers don't really like open platforms. They don't like enabling functionality that can't be monetized. That's why most Treo phones don't also do WiFi. It's not that they can't. I believe it's because the cellular providers won't carry phones that do. They won't carry phones that allow customers to use another network. Cellular providers aren't PC providers, and they are certainly not used to providing a platform on which to run other applications.

And finally, it was muddy as to whether or not the iPhone was running a true, full set of OS X functionality, or if it was really just a pretty face on a much simpler operating system. I know what Apple says, but I also know the hardware is PDA class.

But the nail in the coffin for me is that, once again, you have to synchronize the damned thing to iTunes before it works at all. Once again, it is not a primary PC. It is a companion. It does really cool stuff in really cool ways, but it wouldn't be my only computer.

That's really why I am sick-and-tired of the PDA thing.

Which brings me to the as-yet unreleased Palm Treo Foleo.

All I have to say is that Palm better have some wicked shit in the pipeline to back this all up. Because I do want that little thing in the waist holster to be my only. I don't want to synchronize. I'm so very tired of deleting duplicate records I could scream. I have lost so much information due to synchronization issues over the years I could explode. I have rebuilt my calendar and my address book tens of times. This has made a PDA, in effect, useless. I can't trust it. I don't want to have to rebuild. Again.

So the Foleo promises to be a bluetooth keyboard and display for a computer that I don't necessarily even have to take out of my pocket. If it works, if the primary portable computer in my pocket is the one that I use to give *copies* of data to other machines, I could really be OK with that.

Give it an iPod-esque 1.8 inch hard drive or plenty of gigs of flash and now we're talking. Then I'm OK with carrying a light-weight laptop-like display terminal.

I do want real computer power. I want to be able to browse the web, I want an email application with real spam-filtering technology or the ability to add plug-ins, I want the ability to edit documents with functionality on a par with MS Word. I want a PIM as inclusive as Outlook. I want to be able to use a specialized text editor for editing HTML and CSS. I want an FTP application to move stuff to my server space. And I want an image editor for some light retouching. And I depend on an RSS reader.

The Treo can do most of that, but the cramped pixel-doubled display makes it challenging to use for more than a few minutes at a time. The small keyboard, while appropriate for texting, is not ideal for writing something like this post. The Foleo could potentially be a solution, if it wasn't for that pesky synchronization thing.

I'm watching the UMPC space, and I have high hopes, but I don't want to be tied to a single operating system. I want some options.

Right this minute, my hopes are set on the ASUS eee PC 701. I should be able to do everything listed above, on an open-source portable platform that is my *primary* computer. If it's under $500, I'm probably sold.

If that doesn't work, I'll try to find a used little Mac notebook that will run OS X 10.5.

I don't think I can do a PDA again. It hurts too much.

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Here's a link to video that explains what it is and why it's a good idea. They do it better and in less time than I could.

Go. See.

I prefer a local app to do it. FeedReader for Windows. Akregator for Linux. Vienna for the Mac. All are free as in beer.

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I am impressed as hell at how well Ubuntu just works. I'm still a Linux n00b, so it's damned nice that it works so well. The live CD method is awesome. I love booting from CD and seeing exactly what the OS will look and work like. The WiFi drivers and software found the network and connected. And the installer really couldn't be much simpler. Click the Install icon on the desktop and choose how you want to use your HDD. Ding.

My only nits to pick are needing to edit the xorg.conf file to specify 24-bit color and to see the ALPS touch-pad with the mouse preferences.

Other than that, it's super easy to install the applications that I want, know and love&emdash;and want to get to know better. ;)

If you have ever wanted to try Linux, get Ubuntu. Just do it.

That is all.

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I mentioned to my friend Michael that it was my favorite snack food of all time, just today, when he complimented me on the theme.

Tonight watching TV we happened on a show called "Good Eats," which happened to be all about popcorn. Mostly stuff I knew, but I like the way the show was put together with cute skits and vignettes and a fair amount of comedy to convey the history of popcorn, a little science about what happens when corn pops, and ways to prepare it maximizing the number of popped kernels.

Right after that show, Rachel Ray was flitting about Chicago on a budget. She ended up at the Navy Pier and made a bee-line to the Popcorn Palace. She mentioned they do mail order and what do you know I pulled them up from a web search. I ordered a catalog.

I figured by now the universe was trying to tell me something, so I popped and ate a big old bowl.

Mmmmm....

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