2005-5-27
When one burns one's bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.
-- Dylan Thomas
Well, once again it's that time boys and girls.
The quarter is almost over, 'bout a week.
Posting now from Ubuntu Linux on my iBook. Blew it away to try Mandrake LE2005. Couldn't find the wireless tools. Installed 'prism-utils' or somesuch, but wlan0 was still dead. Lost patience.
Ubuntu (Debian packaged up nice) has everything I need to use including wireless support. By support I mean that you can actually get the wireless working from reading docs and editing shell scripts in vi. No compiling necessary. No downloading additional packages. The documentation part is important. If you are going to drop me in the deep end, at least give me what I need to get back. Please. OpenBSD is even better, but I don't have disk space right now. And only Linux and Mac OS 9 supports my CDRW firewire drive.
I'm being kind to Mandrake. It seems to me that they are determined to turn it into the Microsoft Windows of Linux distributions. This is not rhetoric. Labyrinthine init scripts. Package tools that should work and don't (touchy syntax and overloaded mirrors). That seems bitchy but I'm the type of person who has the patience to load NetBSD on a Motorola 68040 machine, with X. You have no idea. If I lose patience with a Linux distribution, it's pretty fscked up.
Anyway, having said that, I'm sure that if I had been using Mandrake (iva) for the last five years instead of Slackware, Debian, and OpenBSD I'm sure I would be happy as a clam with it. But it's too different from SysV or BSD for me now.
I broke X on Ubuntu for about 10 minutes before finally using apropos touchpad. There is a touchpad utility to set 'tap to click' etcetera. I've been trying to figure it out all night. I wasn't expecting to find local documentation for that. I AM IMPRESSED. With a Linux distribution for the first time in quite a while.
The more I work with Debian the more I am impressed, same with OpenBSD. But the usability and installer with Ubuntu make for a quick productive environment. I reinstalled this morning, and tonight I was making plots with OpenOffice (look nice but miss Matlab), reading email, browsing...
Speaking of which I have to finish my big project in Matlab for my engineering class this weekend. It's almost done, but it got hairy. Maybe I'll post the source code, why not, Web publishing is free for me (thanks Phil).
I think I can jump from Matlab to Python pretty easily. If I get a chance I'll try to convert my project to Python this summer.
That may not happen though. It looks like I am definitely working in the networking department at Ohio State through the summer! Probably permanently. I will be paid to: 1)write, edit, and run shell scripts using the Unix tool environment (Red Hat 7/Fedora boxes), 2)configure and troubleshoot Cisco switches and routers running IOS, 3)set up new Fedora servers, 4)install new badass networking equipment with monster backplanes, gigabit, fiber... All the stuff I like to do, and want to do for a living. Maybe this will work into a staff position for me, or maybe I'll be spit back into the tech support pool after summer, but it will be great experience. I have done all the things mentioned above professionally, but more peripherally than this. This will be 100% of my job! :)
I think I could happily do this work professionally. I just can't do tech support for the rest of my life though.
BTW, configuring wireless according to the docs in Ubuntu leads to a system where the wireless can be controlled like all other network devices through the network manager applet in GNOME! No more ugly hack shell script workarounds. Not that I mind hacking up a script to make things work, but it's nice when things just work. And the docs can lead you there.
I really like being able to tap-click now. My tap-click reflex was totally frustrated at having to clunk the big blue 'mousebutton' on my iBook.
Well another post is running on and on. It is late. I have not slept well this week. Lots of personal drama. AND it was crunch week, a paper due, a midterm, and last chance to bug the prof to get help on my engineering project. Whew. I'm still alive.
Saw 'Revenge of the Sith' or whatever. Liked it pretty much. It told the story. Anakin being defeated by Obi Wan at the lava pit was excellent. Much more dramatic than I thought it would be. Unfortunately I was distracted by things on my mind, I'll have to watch it again.
And so once again I'll digress. What does fortune have for us this evening?
He jests at scars who never felt a wound.
-- Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet, II. 2"
Well said Bill.
A chink in the ubuntu/GNOME armor (GNOME decision): middle click paste does not work in gnome-terminal after highlighting text (copy) in another terminal tab. That is just wrong. Maybe I'll just use xterm, I really like it. Most of the time the gnome-term tabs are a hindrance; I need to read one tab and type in another simultaneously. Enough whining, it's very usable and free. And I can change it if I want; the source is on the Web. If I break it, I get to keep both pieces ;)
Well, once again it's that time boys and girls.
The quarter is almost over, 'bout a week.
Posting now from Ubuntu Linux on my iBook. Blew it away to try Mandrake LE2005. Couldn't find the wireless tools. Installed 'prism-utils' or somesuch, but wlan0 was still dead. Lost patience.
Ubuntu (Debian packaged up nice) has everything I need to use including wireless support. By support I mean that you can actually get the wireless working from reading docs and editing shell scripts in vi. No compiling necessary. No downloading additional packages. The documentation part is important. If you are going to drop me in the deep end, at least give me what I need to get back. Please. OpenBSD is even better, but I don't have disk space right now. And only Linux and Mac OS 9 supports my CDRW firewire drive.
I'm being kind to Mandrake. It seems to me that they are determined to turn it into the Microsoft Windows of Linux distributions. This is not rhetoric. Labyrinthine init scripts. Package tools that should work and don't (touchy syntax and overloaded mirrors). That seems bitchy but I'm the type of person who has the patience to load NetBSD on a Motorola 68040 machine, with X. You have no idea. If I lose patience with a Linux distribution, it's pretty fscked up.
Anyway, having said that, I'm sure that if I had been using Mandrake (iva) for the last five years instead of Slackware, Debian, and OpenBSD I'm sure I would be happy as a clam with it. But it's too different from SysV or BSD for me now.
I broke X on Ubuntu for about 10 minutes before finally using apropos touchpad. There is a touchpad utility to set 'tap to click' etcetera. I've been trying to figure it out all night. I wasn't expecting to find local documentation for that. I AM IMPRESSED. With a Linux distribution for the first time in quite a while.
The more I work with Debian the more I am impressed, same with OpenBSD. But the usability and installer with Ubuntu make for a quick productive environment. I reinstalled this morning, and tonight I was making plots with OpenOffice (look nice but miss Matlab), reading email, browsing...
Speaking of which I have to finish my big project in Matlab for my engineering class this weekend. It's almost done, but it got hairy. Maybe I'll post the source code, why not, Web publishing is free for me (thanks Phil).
I think I can jump from Matlab to Python pretty easily. If I get a chance I'll try to convert my project to Python this summer.
That may not happen though. It looks like I am definitely working in the networking department at Ohio State through the summer! Probably permanently. I will be paid to: 1)write, edit, and run shell scripts using the Unix tool environment (Red Hat 7/Fedora boxes), 2)configure and troubleshoot Cisco switches and routers running IOS, 3)set up new Fedora servers, 4)install new badass networking equipment with monster backplanes, gigabit, fiber... All the stuff I like to do, and want to do for a living. Maybe this will work into a staff position for me, or maybe I'll be spit back into the tech support pool after summer, but it will be great experience. I have done all the things mentioned above professionally, but more peripherally than this. This will be 100% of my job! :)
I think I could happily do this work professionally. I just can't do tech support for the rest of my life though.
BTW, configuring wireless according to the docs in Ubuntu leads to a system where the wireless can be controlled like all other network devices through the network manager applet in GNOME! No more ugly hack shell script workarounds. Not that I mind hacking up a script to make things work, but it's nice when things just work. And the docs can lead you there.
I really like being able to tap-click now. My tap-click reflex was totally frustrated at having to clunk the big blue 'mousebutton' on my iBook.
Well another post is running on and on. It is late. I have not slept well this week. Lots of personal drama. AND it was crunch week, a paper due, a midterm, and last chance to bug the prof to get help on my engineering project. Whew. I'm still alive.
Saw 'Revenge of the Sith' or whatever. Liked it pretty much. It told the story. Anakin being defeated by Obi Wan at the lava pit was excellent. Much more dramatic than I thought it would be. Unfortunately I was distracted by things on my mind, I'll have to watch it again.
And so once again I'll digress. What does fortune have for us this evening?
He jests at scars who never felt a wound.
-- Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet, II. 2"
Well said Bill.
A chink in the ubuntu/GNOME armor (GNOME decision): middle click paste does not work in gnome-terminal after highlighting text (copy) in another terminal tab. That is just wrong. Maybe I'll just use xterm, I really like it. Most of the time the gnome-term tabs are a hindrance; I need to read one tab and type in another simultaneously. Enough whining, it's very usable and free. And I can change it if I want; the source is on the Web. If I break it, I get to keep both pieces ;)
Comment on this post [ so far] ... more like this: [foo]