Monday, 16 August 2004
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{Five Years
Ago Today]
08:11 -
Another week of heads-down writing, so there won't be much around here.
I need to get the Power Supplies chapter done and off to my editor, and
get started on the Wireless Networking chapter. As usual, I'll be
posting these first draft chapters on the Subscribers' page, once my
editor gets a look at them.
Acrobat Reader sucks as badly on Linux as it does on Windows.
Unfortunately, while I'm working on draft chapters, I need to look at a
lot of PDF files. I've noticed recently that my system seems to be
slowing to a crawl, which is pretty bad for a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4. Going
into Process Manager, I always find that XFree86 is sucking down most
of the CPU ticks. It's not XFree86 itself causing the problem, though.
When that happens, acroread is always sitting there in the process
list. Killing it solves the problem. Of course, sometimes it's not so
easy to kill, because it was invoked from Mozilla to display a PDF
document. When that happens, you can't kill acroread without killing
the parent Mozilla process. That's unfortunate, because I often have
many, many instances of my browser open to documents I'm using, and the
only way to kill acroread and get my machine back is to kill Mozilla
itself.
I really hate PDFs. There's no reason all these technical documents
couldn't be HTML, which'd be a lot easier to use. Hint for those
clueless people who use PDFs for on-line documents: A COMPUTER SCREEN IS NOT A PIECE OF PAPER. If you want to provide PDFs for printed output, fine. Just give me HTML for stuff I want to read on-screen.
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Tuesday, 17 August 2004
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{Five Years
Ago Today]
10:28 -
I went out to vote this morning in the run-off election for the
Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District. It feels
strange to be voting for a Republican candidate. Other than the primary
election a few weeks ago, I hadn't voted for a Republican (or a
Democrat) since there'd been a Libertarian Party. But the LP sent me a
letter asking me to change my registration to Unaffiliated so that I
could vote for Republican Vernon Robinson, and that was good enough for
me. That and Ron Paul's endorsement of Vernon.
Microsoft's record on service packs has not been good. Over the years,
they've been forced to withdraw several service packs and issue updated
service packs shortly thereafter. That's the reason there are so many
service packs with names like SP1a and SP6a.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 shows all the early signs of becoming an
unmitigated disaster. IBM issued an internal memo telling their
employees not to install SP2 until further notice, if ever. Several of
my readers have said that they have no plans to install SP2, despite
the fact that Microsoft labels it a critical update. The problem is
that SP2 breaks other software. Lots of other software. And the
workarounds for a particular broken package, if indeed there are any,
can be pretty complex, involving editing the registry, opening or
closing particular ports manually, and so on. Not something you want
users doing, and not something that IT departments have the resources
to do machine by machine.
It's so bad, in fact, that Microsoft has been forced, once again, to delay the planned delivery of SP2 via automatic update. Groklaw has an excellent article on the problems with SP2. It includes one example of what Microsoft suggests people do to resolve problems. Ugh.
Fortunately, for some people there's an alternative to SP2. It's called
Linux, and I've been running one flavor of it, Xandros, as my primary
desktop OS for more than a month now without any significant problems.
I'm running it on my primary office desktop system as well as on my
secondary den system.
Sometime early next month, I'll also install Xandros on Barbara's
primary office system. She already uses Mozilla as her browser and for
mail, so the change to Mozilla under Linux will be easy enough. I've
installed Evolution 1.4 on my primary system, and it's more than good
enough as a PIM. It also supports synching with a PDA, which Barbara
needs. I'm not sure I'll even install Office 2000 on her Xandros
system. OpenOffice.org is more than good enough for what she does with
Word and Excel, and it's a lot more stable.
We're both already waddling around the house with our wings extended
stiffly backward. Neither of us has jumped into any freezing water yet
or started scarfing up herring, though. But soon enough, our home will
be a Microsoft-free zone, at least in terms of production systems. I'll
still be running a few Windows boxes for doing screen shots for the
books and so on, but that'll be it.
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Wednesday, 18 August 2004
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{Five
Years Ago Today]
09:23 -
Vernon Robinson lost the runoff to Virginia Foxx. Pretty badly, too, by
about 55% to 45%. I was surprised, because he came in first in the
primary I thought he'd win the runoff pretty easily. I commented to
Barbara this morning that I'd thought he'd win, and she asked if I'd
looked at the breakdown in votes by county listed in the morning paper.
I hadn't, and said so. Barbara said Vernon was beaten badly in the
rural counties, those as she put it that "would never vote for a black
man, no matter what his politics." I said that was terrible. Barbara
said, "That's the South."
I'd like to think that's not true, but it probably is. Come to think of
it, it's probably just as true of the North. The idea of not voting for
a man because of his skin color despite the fact that you agree with
his politics is so foreign to me that I'm at a loss for words.
A clarification on my post yesterday. I was in no way suggesting that
Windows XP users not install SP2, merely that they be aware that it's
likely to break a lot of other software. In addition to that
widely-published list of 50 or so apps that SP2 breaks, Microsoft has
released another list of a couple hundred apps,
including many mainstream Microsoft apps, that SP2 munges. In fact,
there are so many mainstream apps on the list--from Nero Burning ROM to
Microsoft Office 2000 to Outlook 2000/2002/2003 to BackupExec--that the
probability anyone can install SP2 without breaking at least one app is
just about nil.
Years ago, I emailed Bill Gates and suggested a new slogan: "Microsoft
- Insecure by Design". I never heard back from him, but the truth of my
comment has become abundantly clear over the years. Now, with SP2,
Microsoft is trying to catch up overnight. Or so they hoped to do. In
fact, there's already a post-SP2 hotfix out.
Speaking of Xandros, I installed the Business Edition 2.5 release last
night on one of my test-bed systems. Other than the newer version of
Crossover Office, I was unable to see any difference at all between 2.5
and 2.0. In effect, 2.5 is simply 2.0 fully updated from Xandros
Networks and with the newer Crossover Office. There's no reason to
upgrade unless you need the newer version of Crossover Office.
The real upgrade will be to Xandros 3.0, which should ship late this
year. That release will be a significant upgrade, including updating
the current 2.4.X kernel to 2.6.X, updating KDE, and so on. Xandros
takes a lot of heat for using older versions of most software in their
distribution, but there's a lot to be said for staying off the bleeding
edge.
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Thursday, 19
August 2004
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{Five Years
Ago Today]
09:23 - When I started work on Building the Perfect PC
(which, incidentally, they now tell me hits the bookstores on the 25th
or thereabouts), I knew that we'd be doing a full four-color book. My
digital camera, an antique Olympus D400-Z, provided only 1280 x 960
resolution, or 1.3 megapixels. I knew that wouldn't be good enough, so
I went off in search of a better digital camera. I ended up buying an
Olympus C-5000Z. According to the specs, it had everything I needed,
including 5 megapixel resolution, excellent macro capabilities, and a
hot shoe that would allow me to use an external flash.
All of that was true enough, but I really don't like the Olympus
C5000-Z, at least for shooting images for the book. The C5000-Z is like
a Swiss Army Knife with 473 features--trying to figure out how to
access the one or two features you really want to use is nearly
impossible. Heck, I still haven't figure out how to make it default to
2560x1920 at its best quality level. Every time I power down the
camera, it comes back up in 2560x1920 resolution, but in standard
quality. I've done everything I can figure out to save the setting for
best quality, but it won't stick.
There's a mode dial on top of the C5000-Z with something like a
dozen settings--aperture priority, shutter priority, etc. etc.
Incredibly, the main configuration menu changes according to where the
mode dial is set. I'm not talking about things related to the mode
setting changing. That'd be reasonable. I'm talking about basic stuff
changing. For example, you can set resolution with the mode dial in
some positions, but not if it's in others. Geez.
So now I have another 5 megapixel digital camera. It's a Concord 5345Z,
and it's pure simplicity next to the Olympus C-5000Z. I just got it
yesterday, and I spent a few minutes playing with it yesterday
afternoon. I was able to set the resolution and quality level (which
persisted), change flash settings, and use macro mode, all without so
much as glancing at the manual. I shot a few test images, which appear
very sharp and with excellent color.The Concord 5345Z is tiny, about
the size of a pack of standard cigarettes. It's also fast. From
power-on to ready-to-shoot takes only a couple seconds. I think I'm
going to like this camera. It costs about $300 at NewEgg.
I should also have ordered a memory card, because the camera doesn't
come with one. It has 9.7 MB of internal memory, which is enough to
store only four images at the highest resolution and quality level. It
accepts SD/MMC memory cards up to 512 MB. I was going to run over to
Best Buy yesterday afternoon and buy a 256 MB memory card or two, but
fortunately I checked prices before I left. NewEgg sells numerous 256
MB SD cards from various manufacturers. A Kingston 256 MB card is $33
at NewEgg. When I checked the Best Buy web site, I was flabbergasted.
The only 256 MB SD memory card they offer is a Sandisk model, which
they want $89 for.
Fortunately, the internal memory sufficed to show me what the camera
is capable of. I shot several macro images of stuff like the ATX power
socket on a motherboard. The images were all sharp, well-exposed, and
had excellent color. This little camera is going to make my life easier.
11:45 - I just now ordered some
stuff from NewEgg, including a 256 MB Kingmax 60X SD card (they come in
different speeds) for $33, a spindle of 30 Verbatim DVD+RW discs for
$49, and a 10-pack of 2000mAH NiMH AA batteries for $16. With shipping,
it was $102, which, assuming the IRS standard mileage rate and not
counting my time, is about what it'd have cost me to drive across town
to Best Buy and buy their $89 256 MB SD card.
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Friday, 20
August 2004
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{Five Years
Ago Today]
09:54 -We
were hoping to get some astronomical observing in this weekend,
including a public observation at Pilot Mountain State Park, but it
doesn't look as though the weather is going to cooperate. That's
probably just as well. I have a ton of work to get done by the end of
the month, including a new chapter on wireless networking that I've
only stubbed out so far. The rest of my to-do list is overflowing as
well.
One thing I simply have to make time to do is get over to check out
Barbara's sister's computer. Frances and Al bought an AMD-based HP
computer some months ago, and I haven't had time to go back to check on
it since I did the initial setup and a couple follow-up visits. I'm
seriously thinking about taking over a new hard drive, replacing their
existing drive, and installing Xandros for them. I can put the original
hard drive on the shelf just in case. I already have them using Mozilla
for browsing and mail, so it wouldn't be a huge change for them. And
Xandros is orders of magnitude safer than Windows XP for use on an
unsupervised PC. I set Frances and Al up with AVG antivirus software
and Spybot Search & Destroy, but even so it's likely that their
system has been compromised by at least a few malware programs, if not
worse.
I also need to build a general-purpose test-bed system for myself. I
think I'll build it in an Antec Aria case and just stack the new
test-bed system on top of my current primary office system, which is
also an Aria. That system will run XP, probably dual-booting with
Mandrake 10.x Linux. And, come to think of it, I need to build a second
test-bed system around an Intel 925X motherboard and Socket 775
processor, as well as a third around an ASUS nForce3 motherboard with
an Athlon 64 processor.
But before I do any of that I have to get this current chapter and the
new wireless networking chapter finished up and off to my editor. As
Pournelle says, I'm dancing as fast as I can.
11:37 -
We're really serious about converting to Linux around here. As Barbara
pointed out a couple days ago, we even have Linux paper napkins.
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Saturday, 21
August 2004
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{Five Years
Ago Today]
10:11 - One of the things Xandros lacks is DVD burning capabilities. I fixed that this morning by installing K3B,
which is to KDE as Nero Burning ROM is to Windows. I haven't had a
chance to use K3B yet, but I did spend some time looking at the menus
and docs. It looks pretty comprehensive.
Getting K3B was harder than it should have been. Xandros doesn't offer
it on their Xandros Networks site. I understand that a user-compiled
version was previously offered on XN, but was later withdrawn. I
suspect Xandros doesn't like the competition. They're justly proud of
the integrated CD burning in Xandros, but unfortunately it doesn't
support DVD burning. I suspect DVD burning will be supported by Xandros
3, due out late this year, but I needed DVD burning now.
Fortunately, Xandros has a very active user community, which centers on
their forums site. A couple weeks ago, I did a search for K3B and found
numerous threads. One guy had made a K3B package for Xandros and
offered it by mail to anyone who needed it. I asked him to send me a
copy, and it arrived within the hour. It's been sitting in my home
directory for a couple weeks now. I finally had time to install it this
morning.
Installing K3B was a simple matter of double-clicking the .deb file in
my home directory and telling XN to install it. The first time I fired
up K3B, it generated a warning dialog to tell me that it really, really
wanted cdrdao to operate with root privileges and that a couple of
necessary packages were not installed. The warning dialog told me what
to do--run K3B Setup to change the permissions for cdrdao and download
and install the dvd+r-tools package.
I fired up XN again, and added the Debian unsupported site to the
sources list. Xandros grabbed and installed dvd+r-tools from the Debian
unsupported directories on the Xandros server without any problems. I
then fired up K3B again. This time, the warning dialog mentioned only
the need to allow cdrdao to run as root. I clicked on the button in the
warning dialog to run K3Bsetup. After I entered the root password, up
came a screen with all the suggested changes already in place. All I
needed to do was click Apply and I was ready to roll.
In retrospect, it struck me as odd that I so casually installed an app
that some guy I knew nothing about had sent me attached to an email.
I'd never have done that on Windows, but I didn't even think twice
about doing it on a Linux box. I think it's because the Linux
community, both the Xandros village and the community as a whole, truly
is a community, and there's no room there for bad actors.
A (very) few rude people sure, and some zealots. But even they, despite
their lack of social skills, are not malicious. The community would
jump all over someone who attempted something malicious. Given the
two-week lag between when I received the file and when I installed it,
I'd have heard about it if there'd been any problem with it.
Perhaps I'm naive, but the contrast is interesting. With Windows, I'd
be surprised if a file I'd gotten from someone I don't know was
legitimate. With Linux, I'd be shocked if it weren't.
Geez, I can't get anything past these guys. Barbara's working in the
back yard and had the dogs out to play ball. A few minutes ago, she
brought Duncan back in and shouted up, "Duncan pottied." Duncan doesn't
always get his fair share of treats, so I walked into the kitchen,
pulled a dog cookie from the container, and gave it to Duncan. A few
minutes later, the door opened again, and Barbara shouted up the
stairs, "Malcolm pottied."
Malcolm came up the stairs at his highest rate of speed (he has only
two speeds, really, full-on and full-off). When Malcolm got upstairs,
he walked over to Duncan and sniffed Duncan's mouth. Malcolm then
walked over to me, sat down, stared at me and barked. It couldn't be
much clearer than that.
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Sunday, 22
August 2004
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{Five Years
Ago Today]
9:24 -
More heads-down writing, today and for the rest of the month. I simply
have to finish the Power Supplies chapter today in order to have a
reasonable amount of time to write the Wireless Networking chapter. I
have a 1 September deadline to submit two chapters, and I intend to
make that deadline. Doing that will require working straight through,
seven days a week, until the 1st.
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Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 by Robert Bruce Thompson. All Rights Reserved.
