Friday, November 13, 2009
The Skit Guys Make Doritos Commercials
Categories: Commercials, Doritos, The Skit Guys
Normally, I don’t shamelessly plug the work of other people, but in the case of The Skit Guys, I’ll make an exception. For one, its a good group with a worthy purpose. I suggest checking out their site, or, if you happen to be a Facebook junkie, you can check out their profile. The second reason I’m doing this is because I actually know these people.
Apparently Frito Lay ran a contest last year and is doing it again this year. Full details about this can be found at www.CrashtheSuperbowl.com. The basic idea is to come up with a commercial for Doritos, and the top 3 will be shown during the Superbowl. Well, our heroes have submitted two entries to this gladiatorial contest of videographic skill. The first is a public service announcement of sorts stressing the need to protect your Doritos from overgrown flightless Antarctic waterfowl. The second takes place at a dinner party. Both are quite humorous and worth watching.
- Giant Penguins Entry (http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/5586)
- Dinner Party Entry (http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/4855)
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
It’s Been Such a Long Time
Categories: Commodore 64, Computers, Nostalgia, PC, TRS-80
Today, I’ve been waxing nostalgic. Perhaps it’s all the messing around with Linux I’ve been doing, or perhaps it’s the fact that on our break last night at my Tuesday night class, we sat around discussing old computer games. Whatever the case may be, I’ve been thinking about exactly how long I’ve been tinkering and toying around with computers, and while I am perfectly aware that there are those who have been doing it longer than me, It’s still quite some time.
First, let’s go back to when I first started working with modern systems. Mind you, I define modern in relation to computers not as bleeding edge or even current market. In fact, technologically speaking, my definition is probably anything but modern. For my purposes, a modern system is at least a 300 MHz processor, 64 MB RAM, a hard drive measured in GB rather than MB, and running at least Windows 95. If this is the starting point, then I’ve been dealing with computers since 1997. Coincidentally, if we expanded to when I started working on the internals of PC’s, it would only be 1 year earlier, when I got an old 8088, (the first PC architecture computer I actually owned, by the way,) and had to open it up and “perform surgery” to make it work.
Now let’s expand our parameters to include when I started dealing with the PC architecture. If memory serves, that would have been around 1987. (386's were awesome!). But this still doesn’t actually reach the beginning of my descent into madness…er…my start of working with computers. No, we still need to go further back. Even going back to 1984, when I got my first computer ever, a Commodore 64, that’s not quite far enough. Nope, back to 1982 when I first laid hands on a TRS-80, (ironically 1 year after they were discontinued,) and I’ve been behind the keyboard ever since.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sorry, Ubuntu, You’ve Got to Go!
Categories: Debian, GDM, GRUB, PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu
And now it’s time for that long-awaited final review. Overall, Ubuntu is not as bad as I had originally perceived it to be. It’s got lots of community support and applications galore available through the repositories. Gnome still isn’t my favorite interface, but, it’s still better than a good number of many of the others. The initial layout as well as the default artwork provided by Ubuntu are as ugly as, well… something else really ugly. Fortunately, that can be fairly easily changed; but in the end, I take issue with the fact that I can’t control, (at least not easily,) what the boot process and login screen look like. Perhaps I didn’t play around with it enough, but I know that both PCLinuxOS and Debian, (the OS on which Ubuntu is based,) have utilities that make customization of GRUB and GDM fairly simple.
Again, I may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but the video and display issues I had previously had with Debian I believe I may be able to solve thanks to my recent experience with Ubuntu and a little bit of online research.
GRUB & GDM Woes
Categories: Form vs Function, GDM, GRUB, Ubuntu, Visual Appeal
One thing I do remember from the brief time that I actually switched to the Gnome desktop environment while still using PCLinuxOS, is that GDM was as equally easy to configure as KDM, so there was no problem having a nice consistent feel from login screen to the actual desktop. Nos to with Ubuntu, or at least not that I’ve been able to come across. I’ve searched the repositories up and down, and tried editing every configuration file I could find related to GDM, but no such luck changing the theme or behavior of the login screen. This is far from acceptable. I haven’t quite given up yet, and I doubt that this will be a deal-breaker. I’ve heard rumor that once the full release is out, GDM will have much more user control than in the beta release, which is what I am currently using, but to me, not having that control now is a fatal error on the part of the Ubuntu development team. True it’s just eye-candy, but my eyes want something sweet when my logging in to my PC.
Now on to GRUB. PCLinuxOS, and even the Ubuntu Live CD come with a nice graphical boot menu. What do you get when you boot up your system after installing Ubuntu? A double-ugly barely editable text-based menu. Again, where’s my visual candy that was promised on the live CD? More importantly, where are the apps that let me correct this gross oversight in the repository?
Perhaps I’m placing entirely too much importance on form over function. After all, both of these features work quite well, but so do the versions that look ten times better and have easy access to configuration information. As far as the boot-up process is concerned, why not take the extra effort to make sure that what ends up starting the computer is at least as attractive as what starts up when the CD does?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Ubuntu/Flash Saga: Resolution
Categories: Flash, NVidia, Problems, Solutions, Ubuntu
Finally, after much ado, I found a solution to my problem. It seems that my issue was not merely related to Ubuntu, Flash, and proprietary NVidia drivers; it also had to do with the fact I had decided to use the AMD64 release of Ubuntu. Naturally, the 32-bit version of Flash that the Adobe site wants you to download doesn’t play nice, but neither did the version provided by Adobe that was in the Synaptic Package Manager repositories. Once I found a link that allowed me to download the 64-bit version of Flash for Linux from Adobe, and was able to manually install it, things worked just hunky-dory. Looks like I just might be keeping Ubuntu after all. (That final review is still on the way, don’t forget!)
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
So Far, My Only Problem
Categories: Flash, Linux, NVidia, Proprietary vs Open-Source, Ubuntu, Video Drivers
This is still not the final review, but it is my only true difficulty that I have encountered so far in using Ubuntu. Naturally, Flash and Linux have never completely gotten along, and throwing Firefox into the mix for some strange reason just seems to complicate matters. Nevertheless, my issues with Flash were relatively minimal under PCLinuxOS. Now I come to Ubuntu and have all sorts of issues. As trial-and-error research has lead me to discover, it’s an issue with the proprietary NVidia drivers. Since the issue seems to stem from having both a proprietary driver and the proprietary Flash player from Adobe installed, there are currently only two possible solutions to this, and neither of them are completely acceptable.
The first solution involves the Flash player itself. Rather than using Adobe’s proprietary software, I can use an open-source Flash player. Gnash doesn’t do too bad of a job, but it still has several issues, especially where a lot of my favorite past-times on Facebook are concerned. (True, I had to use Seamonkey instead of Firefox to correct issues under PCLinuxOS, but this seemed to have little effect with these kinds of problems.) Obviously this approach leaves me having to run to Windows any time I want to use those flash-based applications that Gnash just won’t handle, but on the other hand, I get to keep all the nifty Compiz visual desktop effects that can only be enabled by using the proprietary driver.
The second solution, (as should be fairly obvious,) is to use the Adobe Flash player, but stick with the generic open-source video driver that doesn’t fully support all the cool 2D and 3D rendering effects the card is actually capable of doing. I still have the Firefox/Flash issues to deal with, but I have a viable workaround for that which doesn’t involve switching operating systems. This does, however, prevent me from using any of the Compiz visual effects and has the potential to limit what other programs I can use due to the fact the video driver being used doesn’t fully support my video card’s full potential.
I’m still not completely sure if this will be a deal-breaker or not. I’ve been fairly happy with Ubuntu on the whole, but it’s little annoyances like this that made me want to run away from PCLinuxOS.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Initial Ubuntu Review
Categories: Linux, Operating Systems, Ubuntu
My final estimation of Ubuntu will be out in a few days, but I figured I would give you sort of an initial perception to give you an idea where I’m currently at with it. Besides, my final review will probably determine whether or not I go “hard-core” committed to it and upgrade to the final 9.10 release do out in 2 days, or try something else.
When it comes to operating systems, much like food, you “eat with your eyes” long before you dig in and enjoy with any practicality. With this, Ubuntu, as usual, falls very short. The brown and orange themes combined with the generally displeasing hideous default layout of the Gnome desktop makes my stomach wretch. Fortunately, this can be solved fairly easily. It comes with OpenOffice.org preinstalled, (another reason I’ve started to shy away from PCLinuxOS,) and all my hardware worked as it was intended to work. (Hey, to quote Meatloaf: “Two out of three ain’t bad.”)
While the repositories are just chock-full of all kinds of goodies that aren’t native to the live CD, I thought it rather odd that no form of flash player (Adobe or open-source) was pre-installed. I also found it rather disappointing that while my DVD drive responded properly, it was not automatically set up with the proper codecs to play DVD’s. I was also stunned to find that the only Bitstream font that was preinstalled was Bitstream Charter. I tend to use Bitstream Vera Sans, Serif, & Mono for my system fonts, so I was a little disappointed not having those right away. (Fortunately, I keep them on a thumb drive for just such an emergency.) Since I#8217;m on the topic of fonts, one thing that PCLinuxOS had that Ubuntu doesn’t is an easy way to install fonts en masse. Perhaps there is a utility in the repository that will help with that, but I haven’t found it yet.
There is one last thing that I haven’t been able to find preinstalled or in the repositories. Perhaps it’s there and I just haven’t gotten to it yet. I like the nice visual effects, but I can’t find a way to tweak them to be something different. There are only 3 options. One sets them to all off, the next sets only a few of them on, and the other turns them all on, but doesn’t let you customize the way they behave. There needs to be a way to configure exactly which effects are turned on and exactly how they behave.
That’s it for now. I’ll have more in a day or two once I finish getting everything loaded up and properly configured.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Ubuntu
Categories: Linux, Operating Systems, PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu
Ubuntu—I have loathed that word from the day I first heard it. Not entirely sure why, but I have. The last thing I have wanted to do was to put an operating system that carried that word as it’s name on my system, however, that’s just what I’ve ended up doing. (I’ll have a full review of it later.) I have been a firm and well established user of PCLinuxOS and didn’t truthfully have any plans to change that—until today.
As I have mentioned elsewhere, PCLinuxOS has recently decided to update to KDE 4. I have been quite happy with KDE 3.5, and my hardware won’t support KDE 3.5. The problem is that a good number of the programs that PCLinuxOS had that I liked to use were based on KDE and had been transferred from the 3.5 repositories to the 4.3.2 repositories, thus forcing me to upgrade if I wanted to keep my system properly updated. (Since I had recently had to reload my system, I needed to get those programs.)
Aside from being forced to use a different desktop, not all of my hardware was responding the way it should. I checked all my settings as well as my system configuration, and all was as it should have been, but things like my DVD-R just wouldn’t work quite right. With these new-found issues, I decided to forgo PCLOS and switch things up a bit. I had tried Debian before, and in general was well pleased, but there were some minor issues with hardware configuration that I’m hoping I won’t have with Ubuntu. I am aware, naturally, that Ubuntu is based on Debian, but I am also aware that in some regards it is somewhat more widely supported.
I have tried Ubuntu in the past and been less than pleased, but that was before I had become more familiar with Gnome. It still isn’t my first pick for a desktop, (and I still hate the foot,) but I can live with it, and it offers more of the customization options I’m used to when compared to some of the lighter weight desktop environments. Also, some of my displeasure with Ubuntu was based on running it on substantially older hardware. This time, it will be on a much more up-to-date system.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sometimes I Think I’m Getting too Old for This
Categories: Age, College, Life
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in any way, shape or form regretting going back to school, but sometimes, I wonder what on earth I was thinking. It’s been over 7 years since I’ve been in any kind of classroom, and about 15 years since I’ve been officially enrolled in any kind of collegiate program. Fortunately, the years have made me a little wiser, and I have learned from my mistakes the first time through. This time, I actually want to be there, and have good motivation to actually study and keep my grades up. I’m quite grateful for the help that my grandparents gave me on my first journey into the realm of higher education, but it’s amazing what footing the bill yourself will do for your perspective on things, (not to mention, actually having a notion of what you want to be when you grow up).
Anyway, back to the matter at hand. While I do see the greater good that my returning to a life of academia will result in, I am plagued with the fact that while my resolve is far greater than it was those 15 years ago, my physical self is perpetually reminding me that I am indeed, 15 years older—far closer to 40 than 23 as I was last time I darkened the door of a college. I don’t generally consider myself all that old, but when surrounded by a large number of people who are younger than me, it does remind me that I am “making up for lost time,” so to speak. Then, of course, there’s always the thought that keeps running through my head: “I’ve got homework! 38-year-olds aren’t supposed to have homework!” (Guess that’s what I get for not taking college seriously the first time around.)
Well, enough bemoaning the past and things I cannot change. “Better late than never,” seems a rather apropos counterpoint to my self-deprecating malaise. Sometimes I may think I’m too old for this, but then the realization sets in that what I’m really getting too old for is carrying around the regrets of not finishing my degree in the first place.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
A Registered User
Categories: Linux
I had actually done this quite a while ago, but hadn’t done anything with it, so I finally decided that it was time to put it to use. “What exactly is it?" you ask. It’s a virtual certificate that shows that I am a registered user of at least one version of Linux.
Big deal, right? Well, yes. Not only does it beautify my website with it’s penguiny goodness, it also shows my support of and active participation in the Linux community.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Keeping My Promise: A Personal Update, Part II
Categories: Life, Work
When closing my last post, I said that I would reveal the rest before I started to school, so here I am, keeping that promise. I had already told a few key people about this already, but didn’t want to make in common knowledge until two key things had transpired. First, I wanted to make sure that I had enlightened my family. I didn’t want them finding out via grape-vine, but rather straight from me. Second, I also wanted to have a fairly clear resolution of the situation, which I now have. Anyway, the big hairy news that I decided to keep you in suspense over is that I quit my job with Hertz. I have since gotten a job more conducive to my school schedule with a local sub shop. The pay isn’t quite as good, but the job is not nearly as migraine-inducing, and is far more flexible to work around my scheduling needs. The downside is that it’s been 10 years since I last worked in food service, and I am physically reminded of that, (and the fact I’m just plain out of shape,) practically every day I’m at work, but I should be able to keep it up at least while I finish my degree.
Friday, August 07, 2009
Breaking the Silence: A Personal Update
Categories: Blogging, College, Life
I’m sure that what few loyal readers I have, (and you know who you are,) have noticed a recent decline in my activity. To be quite honest, I just haven’t felt like writing. I don’t get paid to do this, so if there’s nothing I want to say, this place sits dormant. Things have been going on, though, and I think it’s time for an update.
It’s no secret to most that I’m not particularly happy with the fact I can’t seem to get a job doing what I love to do—work with computers. I am setting out to do something about that. This September, (yes, next month,) I will be going back to college, (ITT Technical Institute to be precise,) to get a degree in computer networking and hopefully end up with a job as a network or systems admin somewhere. At the very least, doing computer technician work for some place like Best Buy, Staples, or some local company that so far won’t give me a second glance because I have no formal training or experience, despite the fact that I’ve been building and repairing computers as a personal hobby since 1995, and learning my way around Linux for the last 2 – 3 years.
Enough about that, as far as my writing endeavors are concerned, it may still be a while before For God so Loved the World… gets some much needed attention, and likewise, with my input at LinuxforChristains.org. Right now I would be posting just to be posting something, and while that might be somewhat acceptable for this site of admittedly shameless self-promotion, such is not the case for the other sites. Posts for my other site can’t just be something I want to post. They have to be inspired, otherwise, they don’t fulfill the purpose of the site. I was invited to post on LinuxforChristians.org, and I am not about to load up someone else’s site with worthless flotsam; so, until I have something worthwhile and relevant to add there, I shall continue to wait to post again.
There is more that has transpired as of late, but I must keep you in suspense for now. The time is not yet right for all to be revealed, but don’t worry, I should be posting again before I start school.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Of Pennies Saved & Pennies Earned
Categories: Benjamin Franklin, Finance, Idiom, Savings
Please don’t get me wrong, I have no beef with Benjamin Franklin. I think he’s a swell guy. One-hundred dollar bills & bifocal glasses are great, but what’s up with “A penny saved is a penny earned?” That is fiscal nonsense, and grammatically, it is only probable at best.
First, lets address the fiscal side of things. Looking at it as a mathematical equation, I don’t know of any bank giving you 100% A.P.R. or A.P.Y., (or even anything much better than 3–5% [if you’re lucky] for that matter,) so the odds of a penny staying invested long enough for the ROI to reach 100%, thus proving the idiom true isn’t very likely.
Now for the grammatical aspect of the statement: First we need some definitions. (These come courtesy of Dictionary.com.)
- save (verb)
- to avoid the spending, consumption, or waste of
- to set aside, reserve, or lay by
- to lay up money as the result of economy or thrift
- to be economical in expenditure
- earn (verb)
- to gain or get in return for one's labor or service
- to gain as due return or profit
- to gain income
Obviously, we can save pennies, and obviously we can earn pennies. But just because we save a penny doesn’t mean we earned it. It could have been given to us as a gift. We did nothing to earn that penny. Likewise, just because we earn a penny doesn’t mean we save it. We go buy groceries, clothing, other needs and wants. Odds are, those pennies will get spent.
Since the odds are in favor of those pennies getting spent, then that means it takes work to save, this means that we are “earning” those pennies we save, right? No, it means we are being good stewards of what we have already earned and been given and not being wasteful. True, if we invest wisely, we will earn a return on our savings, but refer back to my earlier paragraph on the fiscal side of this statement if you are about to say, “See, a penny saved is a penny earned.”
Lastly, what about all those commercials and coupons that offer to save money when purchasing a product at a lower price than the regular rate? Surly saving a penny by taking advantage of special offers is earning the penny you saved? Possibly. It depends on how the savings comes about. There are a few factors that need to be looked at to determine whether this is so. First, is this an item that you need to buy or planning on purchasing? If the answer is no, then you aren’t really saving anything buying it anyway. You aren’t being a good steward of your resources buying an impulse purchase. Ok, so it is something you were planning on buying, do you really need it? If not, again, it may be a frivolous want that in the end, you could save even more money by just not buying in the first place. Oh, all right, the item is something you need. What is the quality of the product being offered? If it’s not of good quality, it may not be worth buying no matter what the price. Better to pay a little more for something worth having than get something just because it’s cheap. Ok, so it’s of good quality. Go ahead and buy it. The fact is, at this point, (or at any point when you purchase something,) you were going to buy that product anyway. There is no additional “work” required for you to take advantage of a sale. You may have had to go shopping on a different day, but no real work. No earned savings there. A coupon requires at least some effort, so that qualifies as earned savings, but barely. A rebate, though…now that’s work, (some more than others,) and definitely qualifies and earned savings.
Before I ride off into the proverbial sunset, I will leave with this one last thought. There is one particular instance in which “A penny saved is a penny earned,” is both grammatically and fiscally accurate, despite what I said earlier, (and yes, I knew this was coming when I started, so shame on me for leading you on and lying to you to in the beginning). Most savings accounts and several other forms of investments compound or reinvest the interest or dividends right back into the account or investment fund. In this instance every penny earned is instantly saved. Well what do you know, looks like the penny that is saved, truly is a penny earned after all.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Bye Bye Caffeine!
Categories: Addiction, Caffeine, Health, Migraine
Back when I tended to make more use of MySpace than Blogger, I had written an article discussing the evils of caffeine addiction. Sadly I am one of those individuals who was heavily addicted to caffeine. I could not go a day without some kind of caffeine; however, I have since managed to all but eliminate caffeine from my diet.
I have made mention in the past that I suffer from migraines. Caffeine just so happens to be a major trigger for my migraines. Small quantities don’t seem to bother me too much, but I can’t have it often, and must be careful with how much I consume. This pretty much rules out all caffeinated sodas except on very rare occasions, and the same goes for regular coffee. I still seem to do well enough with tea if I only drink it with meals and stay away from it when I notice a migraine coming on, or if I already have a migraine.
On the whole, adapting to living sans caffeine hasn’t been as bad as I had feared. I have maybe been a little less “peppy,” but then I haven’t felt as edgy, either, so overall, it’s a good thing.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Ranch Dressing and Other Real Things that Don’t Exist
Categories: Cars, Randomness, Salad Dressing
If it weren’t for companies latching onto what the general public decides to call their product, a few things that we have come to know and love would not exist today. Technically, I guess they would exist, they would just have different names.
Lets start with Ranch salad dressing. Originally sold commercially as a dry seasoning packet to be mixed with with buttermilk, the brand on the label was Hidden Valley Ranch. The name of the place the dressing was made popular. Originally it was just called Buttermilk dressing. The brand also made Italian dressing. (Personally Ranch dressing is one of the 3 nastiest things on the face of the planet.) Eventually, the brand name got shortened to Hidden Valley, and the product name was changed to Buttermilk Ranch, and inevitably just Ranch. (Might as well be "Raunch" if you ask me. Yuck!)
Time to pick on the automotive industry. Everyone should have heard of the highly successful Honda Civic. Does anyone remember the Honda Accord C with the 5 CC engine? That was the first Civic, or rather CVCC, as the badge on the side and rear of the car denoted. Calling the thing a "Civic" was far easier than saying C 5 C C, or C V C C, or even Accord C. (The C originally stood for compact.) The name was changed to Accord Civic, and then switched to its own model. Honda would do this again with the CRX, starting it off as a sub-model of the Civic.
PCGuyIV
I remember when I was a kid, I used to get bored. Oh, what I would give to be “bored” again.
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