Life on Snow Hill

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.

…for now, anyway.  I discovered just today (by browsing around digg.com) that Google was planning to release a beta of their newest product, a web browser.  Enter Google Chrome.

I’m not a huge fan of *everything* Google does, but many people really like the way they handle everything.  For browsers, I’ve just about always hated IE, so I’ve defaulted to Firefox.  It works for me, but crashes every once in a while.  Chrome is only in beta, but I already really like it.

It has a minimalist approach to the user experience – the window isn’t cluttered with options and tweaks everywhere, but at the same time you can’t tweak much behind the scenes either.  Maybe that will change once it is out of beta…  I like the look and feel of it, though.  When you open a new tab, it brings up several of your most visited sites in thumbnails that you can click on.  It also has your most recently added bookmarks.

Oh, speaking of bookmarks.  It imported all of my Firefox bookmarks, as well as the saved form/login information.  I’m not 100% sure if I like that part, but keeping the saved form informtaion across browsers is very cool.

I’ll probably stick with it as long as it is stable.  That’s my only real turnoff for Firefox.  Time will tell…

The latest and greatest version of WordPress is out and available for download.  Here’s a video explaining some of the newest features:

The biggest features I’d like to point out are:

• Post revisions – WordPress now keeps multiple versions of your posts, so if you make a change to a post, you can always go back to the original (Or any other version you may have saved).
• Gears - a browser extension that basically creates a ‘local server’.  Or, in other words, it caches commonly used javascript and CSS files locally to speed up page loads.  There is a lot of potential for Gears, so keep an eye on this one.
• Theme Previews – Pretty self-explanatory.  Without ‘applying’ the theme to your entire site, you can see what it will look like before you make it a real change.

There are many more smaller features listed in the official announcement.

For Linux users everywhere, Banshee 1.0 has been released!  At home I run Windows XP, but I also run Ubuntu 8.04.  I’ve always loved Linux, and I love how far it’s come.  It’s products like Banshee that are pushing it along and making it more accepted in the general public.  Not all that long ago, Linux was still mostly for the geeky types, but more mainstream type applications are making it easier for a regular home user to use with ease.

I’m going to download and install it tonight on my Linux box at home!

As much as I dislike Microsoft and its products, unfortunately they are here to stay.  I am forced to use them at work because they love paying too much for corporate applications.  But that’s a story for another day.

If you use Outlook frequently, meet Xobni.  I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but it looks like a very useful addon.  It has even been called the next generation of social networking by Bill Gates himself.

Xobni makes it easy to find specific conversations, and displays them in threaded format.  It allows you to quickly find phone numbers, and makes it easy to find a free slot in your calendar for a new meeting.  You also get email analytics, giving you statistics on how you and your colleagues use email.

Although it is still currently in beta, I plan on installing it on my PC at work and giving it a test run.  Its requirements are that you have to be running Windows XP or Vista, and Outlook 2003 or 2007.

Everybody who ever wanted to have their own blog is in luck!  Head on over to clipblog.us, a site that I’ve set up that was originally for family and friends, but I’m making available to the public as well.

First things first – it’s totally free.  I’m not charging anything for it – yet.  Maybe someday I will if it gets popular enough and I’m able to devote more time to it to be sure it will be up and running all the time in a stable state.

Signing up is easy.  I’ve even got a wiki started that should help you get signed up if you’re not exactly sure how.  When you sign up, you’ll get your own blog name, like myblog.clipblog.us.

Head on over and check it out!

Warning – this will be a geeky post.  If you are not a geek or are uninterested in geeky stuff, please do not proceed.

Vista is a great media center platform.  It’s nice & shiny and all that stuff.  It looks hi-tech, and it’s really easy to use.  The only problem is, it’s a real resource hog.

Becky and I tolerated it as long as we could.  If it happened to be recording a show when we turned on the media extender (Xbox 360), that show would start stuttering badly at that point in time, and it would never get caught up and calm down.

As I said, we tolerated it.  We finally had enough.  Plus, it was Superbowl Sunday.  I didn’t want to wait until the game had finished recording before I turned it on to watch it.  Not to mention all the other times we’ve turned it on and what we were trying to watch was nothing but broken audio with pixilated video.  So last Saturday I set out with the task of re-imaging the PC back to the way it came from the factory – Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

Once I unplugged the extra 300GB SATA drive that I added for recorded shows’ storage, the restore went very smoothly.  I only had to install the drivers for my analog tuner – the digital tuner was recognized automatically, which was nice, because I didn’t remember how I got it to work before.  Somehow it was a real pain the first time, but not this time.

After the PC had a new, clean build, I uninstalled all that ‘extra’ stuff the PC manufacturers put on there – AOL, stupid little games, etc.  I also stopped several services that weren’t completely necessary in hopes to streamline the system.  I then went through the Media Center setup, and went through the process to connect the Xbox 360 back to it.  Everything was going smooth – this was too easy this time for some reason.

Ok, everything is configured.  I’m testing out the TV functionality.  It works!  Wow, it was so easy.  Well, compared to last time anyway – you still have to know what you’re doing, but still!  I immediately went through the guide and found the big game on FOX and set it to record.

After church Sunday night (We had 2 really good services, by the way) Becky and I came home, got some food ready and changed into some more comfortable clothes.  The moment of truth was a little over an hour and a half away (Remember, the point where I power on the Xbox as a media center extender would cause the recorded show to begin its pixilating and cutting out from that point forward, and it was a little after 7:30).  We were enjoying the game, and I totally forgot to even look for trouble.  It never came.  And this was a large recording.

Finally, the system works like it’s supposed to, although on an older version of Windows.  That’s ok, lots of people are avoiding Vista for this reason alone.  Maybe if I can get enough money to get a workhorse of a computer I’ll transfer it all back over.  But until then, I’ll stick with my XP for my Media Center needs.

I love gadgets. Electronic ones, that is. I like tools too, but electronics have always been something I’ve been drawn to. Unfortunately, I don’t have the finances to fully support my need for new electronic gadgets.

Something I’d love to have, someday, but probably will never be able to, is the new Microsoft Surface. Every now and then I’ll run across it on the Internet, and it always makes me stop and practically drool over it. That’s bad of me, I know. To see how cool it is, just watch this video:

My Media Center PC & XBox 360 are great at playing slide shows of my photos and playing music to have in the background. But the Surface would just be cool to have because it’s more interactive and all that jazz.

I suppose in reality it’s just another gadget I’d just like to have.