Life on Snow Hill

That’s right, folks.  I’ve been hitting refresh on Ubuntu’s front page for the last half hour or so, and they’ve finally made the final release of 8.10 available.  I’m downloading now and will be installing it on my workstation at work today.

Ubuntu is sporting a fresh new look on its front page as well.  Well, it has a nice little flash animation anyway.  It’s explaining all of the bigger features in the new release.  Go ahead and download – I’m sure you won’t be sorry.

— UPDATE

I now have a fully functioning Ubuntu 8.10 system.  Once word got out that it was ready, everybody began downloading and started slowing down all of the circuits.  But I finally got it, and installed it.  Installing the handful of security fixes that are already out takes a little bit of time because of how saturated the circuits are, but it works.  Installing new software using the Add/Remove utility on the Applications menu is the same – slow, but working.  I imagine it will take a few days to sort out while everyone downloads their copy.

I have, however, managed to get everything I need to get going.  I installed the 3D drivers for my nVidia card, and my 3D desktop is all working.  I installed the Advanced Desktop Effects Settings utility and tweaked them to my heart’s content.  I also installed Synergy from the Ubuntu repositories so that I could control my XP laptop from this machine as well.

So far everything is working completely as expected – flawless.  Unless, again, you count slow speeds at Ubuntu’s repositories to be flawed.  Don’t worry – that’ll settle down soon.

My only disappointment is that OpenOffice.org 3 wasn’t included.  2.4 is here, but 3 has been out for a few weeks now.  I suppose I understand, though – they didn’t want to introduce last-minute changes.  It is available for install, however, so I’m sure I’ll be remedying that in the not-so-distant future.

Ok, I actually can’t stand the Phillies.  I don’t much care for the Rays either, but the Phillies I hate.  I don’t have a good reason..  Let the flames begin.

My purpose for this post is simply an interesting observation I made.  I caught the news of the win this morning on the news.  You know, the same old stuff for any team that wins – X team hasn’t won a World Series since 19xx.  This town sure is excited.

That’s where it turned different.  The next scene it showed looked like a huge riot in some 3rd world country.  Minus the burning cars.  There were fires in the streets though, and people shooting off roman candles made it look all that much more like a big riot.  It looked almost like people launching RPG’s everywhere.

Now, my mind may be exaggerating some of this, but this was my honest-to-goodness first impression of the scene.  Just an interesting observation…

A good while back, I spent a lot of time searching for a nice, solid, smooth email server for use on my system at home.  I host my own domains, and my own email server.

At that point, I tried several different systems, everywhere from simple Postfix IMAP/POP servers, to full-blown groupware suites.  I won’t take the time to list them all.  Some of them are free, some of them are not.

I decided that since I was able to use virtual machines (VMware has a free server product in case you’ve been living under a rock), it was time for me to implement a simple ActiveDirectory at home.  Just because I could.  It seemed logical to try out Exchange in this little lab of mine.  It worked well.  But as I moved my desktop/laptops over to Ubuntu, I needed something better than OWA through Firefox – OWA is no good without Microsoft’s junky ActiveX in case you’ve never tried it.

Here is where Zimbra comes in.  It was previously one of the systems I’d tried, and I liked it really well.  In fact, it may have been what I replaced when I installed Exchange.  I honestly can’t remember, but I can’t think of any other reason why I would’ve ditched it.  It’s that good – to me.

It offers pretty much everything Exchange/Outlook does, and it does it very smoothly, efficiently and prettily, if that’s a word.

Zimbra runs on Linux, which is a huge plus for me.  It was actually my main requirement for finding a new email system.  They offer a completely free, open-source version (which is what I’m using) which includes most, if not all, of the common features needed by pretty much anybody.  The Network Edition, which costs real money, offers things like Outlook integration, and Mac integration with utilities like iCal.  The Network Edition also includes features like over-the-air sync for most mobile devices.  For me, those would be cool to have, but I doubt I’ll be paying for their Network Edition any time soon.  The only thing that would be nice to have is a supported backup solution, but that are a couple of tried & tested methods to back up and restore the open source version, so I should still be covered there.

The web interface is all that I use now.  It beats Exchange OWA hands-down as far as the interface goes.  Functionality wins as well in my book – it has everything OWA has (Mail (duh), Address book, calendar, tasks, documents (replacement for notes)), but it also has what’s called a briefcase.  I didn’t think much about it until I had everything installed and running.  I looked at the briefcase and noticed I could upload pretty much any type of file that I wanted to.  It makes a great repository for files that I need available from wherever I’m at.  And this is all for free.

The best thing, to me, about Zimbra is that its web interface is completely AJAXified.  No ActiveX garbage, no browser-proprietary stuff, just plain, simple AJAX and solid HTML/Javascript.  This means it all looks the same no matter which browser you use.  I will say, that in my Firefox installs, I have most if not all of my ‘extra’ javascript stuff disabled in the settings.  It still all works great.  Oh, if you don’t know what AJAX is, it basically means the interface is much quicker and much, much more smooth.  You can almost forget you’re using a web browser for your email!

So if you host your own email and you’re looking for a system that handles it very well, Zimbra is definitely worth a look.

–UPDATE–

I forgot to mention that Zimbra has a pretty impressive list of not-so-small companies and organizations that use their suite either as an ISP’s email solution for its customers, or a company’s in-house email solution.

Well, the best part about cold weather anyway.  Today Becky and I built our first fire in the fireplace for the cold season.  I walked outside to help her with something really quick, and when I came back in, I could smell that distinct wood-burning smell.  I love it.  Even on really cold days, our little fireplace can keep it quite toasty in most of the house.

The other best part of cold weather is a nice, hot bowl of chili.  We’re getting ready to have some of that in a little while, too.  Nothing beats chili to warm you up from the inside out.

By now I’m sure you’ve seen at least one of the commercials advertising Mac’s.  If you haven’t, check them out on Apple’s website.  Some of them are quite funny.  These ads have been running since sometime in 2006.

Microsoft, in yet another display of how they lag behind in pretty much everything, decided to run similar ads this year entitled “I’m a PC”.  Yes, they’re copycatting.  And not only that, they haven’t put any ads out there at all until this year.  The only thing they could come up with is something that mimics their competition.  Wait, wasn’t that what Vista was all about with Aero and gadgets?  Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty and all, but Mac already did it.

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you all how clever I am.  Well, to me, I’m clever anyway.  I got an email in my Windows Live account from Microsoft.  It was basically along the lines of them wanting me to tell the world how great PC’s are by becoming part of the “I’m a PC” ‘movement’.

So I decided to tell everybody how great the hardware is..but I’m not using Microsoft.  All the site allows you to do is put in your name, and it’ll let you complete the “I’m a PC, and I . . .” sentence.  So I just entered “run Ubuntu”.

After I submitted everything and released my photo for public use and all that jazz, I got a note saying it would take them a day or two to review my submission and I’d get an email then.  We’ll see if it makes it out the door…

My geekiness is about to come out in this post, so if you’re not into geeky computer stuff, read no further or you’ll be bored out of your mind.

Ubuntu 8.10, Intrepid Ibex, is set to be released on October 30, 2008.  I even added a nifty little countdown timer over there on the right.  I’ve recently converted to 100% Linux on my desktop at home.  It does everything I need to very nicely.

In a lengthy email discussion with Jon and Brad over at RantsAndStuff, we pretty much decided that Linux is pretty much ready for mainstream use, with the rare exception of specific apps that aren’t available for it yet.  Ubuntu is right at the top for ease-of-use distributions available.  Out of the box, all of your basic needs are met:

• Full featured office suite
• Firefox web browser
• Instant Messaging
• Photo and Music management
• and tons of other trinkets and utilities

If you want to add something, it’s a simple process to Add/Remove programs and do a search for whatever you want to install.  What’s cool is you don’t even necessarily have to know the name of the app – the descriptions are generally very nicely written so that if you search for, say, “word processor”, you’ll get several options to choose from.  Simply check the box and go from there.

So enough about how easy Ubuntu is.  In just 3 weeks, the next version is set to come out which sports several improvements (here is where it gets even more geeky if you’re still reading):

• Gnome 2.24 – contains several bug fixes and new features.  Probably the most touted new feature is that the file browser now has tabs much like Firefox
• Xorg 7.4 – this version of the X server (the stuff that makes Linux have a GUI rather than just a text console) makes it much easier to configure your display adapters and monitor(s).
• Kernel 2.6.27 – this kernel supports more hardware and has several bug fixes
• Encrypted private directory – this allows you to secure an area of your home directory for sensitive documents such as tax returns, etc
• Guest session – this is sort of like the guest login that Windows uses may know a little about.  I honestly don’t know why it’s taken Ubuntu this long to implement this feature, but it is a welcome one if you have someone that wants to use your machine to check email or browse the web for a little while, without running the risk of him/her seeing those sensitive documents or changing any system settings.
• There are several others as well, but these are probably the ones that matter most to most users.

So really it doesn’t look like there are going to be any major usability changes, just improvements on what is already there.  I’m excited about the release coming up, and plan to install it as soon as I can get my hands on it.  I’ll post a review of it as soon as I can put it through its paces.

If you live in East Tennessee, you’ve heard by now of the shooting at Knoxville Center Mall.  It makes the 3rd shooting in the Knoxville Center Mall in the last year, and the 3rd deadly shooting in the Knoxville area in the past year.

At the very least, it is becoming obvious that violent crime is becoming more common in East Tennessee.  It’s a sad, but true fact.

The media is already asking people in the area how much ’security’ they are willing to put up with in public places.  They’re not coming out and saying it, but they are implying measures such as metal detectors and searches in public areas, much like the security checkpoing in an airport.

What is the answer?  To me, it is simply to continue to allow private citizens the right to protect themselves with arms.  I may sound cold-hearted when I say this, but the fact is that this store employee chose to risk his own life by not taking the necessary steps to be able to defend it.

Others say it’s to abolish weapons altogether.  We see how well that worked in the UK – all of the law-abiding citizens are defenseless now to the violent crime that is still on the increase.

I’m not promoting vigilanteism (is that even a word?), but I am certainly promoting the idea that each individual is given the responsibility and has the right to protect his or her own life and the lives of his or her children.

Becky and I took a trip to Gatlinburg over the last few days.  We have a sort of trial timeshare with Diamond Resorts, and we decided to take advantage of it for a few days.  We plan to go again in late January to finish out our trial.

We had a good time while we were there.  We got to relax some, and were able to do a few fun things, too.  Of course, anyone that has been in or around Gatlinburg knows that the scenic views in the area can be breathtaking.  This particular photo was taken at Newfound Gap in the Smokies.

While we were there, we spent about a day and a half in Dollywood.  I don’t know if they do this all year, but we found that if you go in after 3pm on one day, you can get in the next day for free.  So we took advantage of that.  We enjoyed a couple of bluegrass bands, saw the Kingdom Heirs (We found that their piano player, Andy Stringfield, lives about a 20 minute drive from where we live), got sick on a couple of roller-coasters and shopped around a bit.

After Dollywood, we spent some time in the Great Smoky Mountains.  We drove up to Clingman’s Dome, took the .5 mile hike up to the top and enjoyed the view.  Don’t let that .5 mile fool you though – it’s steep, and pretty challenging.  Neither Becky or I are in the best shape, but we’re not in terrible shape either.  We had to take a few breaks on the way to the top.  Once we got there, the view was awesome, but the wind was chilling.  We enjoyed the view for a while, took some photos and made our way back down.  We spoke to a Marine, a Vietnam Vet, who had some interesting stories to tell.  We enjoyed talking to him for a little while, then had to move on.  On the way back down towards Gatlinburg, we stopped at Newfound Gap.  We took a few more photos, and learned a few things about the area that I’m sure most of you already know about.  There is a monument there where President FDR dedicated it and the National Park.  The Tennessee/North Carolina state line also runs right through the area where that monument was built.

That evening, we went to the Dixie Stampede.  This makes about the 3rd time we’ve gone, I believe.  It is expensive, but it’s always a fun show to watch, and the food is always very, very good.  I finally saw a mess-up for the first time in the show.  The girl that rides standing up on two horses fell off when she was trying to get them to bow at the end of her act.  She wasn’t hurt at all – she just had to jump off before she completely lost her balance.  Again, though, the show was a lot of fun as always.

We packed up and headed home Wednesday morning.  We had a lot of fun, but it’s always good to get back home.

If you’d like to see, here are a few more photos from the trip.