Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Gateway Netbook vs. Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04


Today I got a new Gateway Netbook for my wife Joy.  The thing was on sale for $50 off, then I got another 20% discount since she is a store employee.  I inspected the packaging (it had been returned) and found it was missing warranty registration and was able to get another 5% discount.  Grand total (drum roll...)  $140ish.

The first order of business was to do away with that nasty piece of software called windows xp and installed Ubuntu Netbook Edition.  A quick download and placement on a USB stick and it was Live boot testing time.  After a quick test to confirm all hardware was supported I went straight to an install.

I did a little tweaking (adding flash, java, and video codecs) and then added some of my wifes basic software favorites and I'm off to the races.  After testing for a few hours I gave it the A+ rating and handed it off to her.

Joy has never used the Netbook Edition desktop interface so a brief tour was needed to explain the subtle nuances and she is now ready to battle the playing field.

All in all, I'd say it was a good day (computer-wise) in the house and I look forward to playing with the new toy whenever she will hand it off to me.

Goodnight All...

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

OpenTyrian Rules

 
Do you remember the old DOS game Tyrian? It's a spaceship shoot 'em up game. Man I used to love playing that game.  I still have the original floppy disks and had the game setup using dosbox under Ubuntu.  It worked but wasn't as good as running under native DOS.

Well, the game was recently opensourced and you can get it from www.playdeb.net for native Ubuntu Linux.

Well after the install all I can say is AWESOME!  The opentyrian version is EXACTLY the same game and it includes all game episodes.  This is great, I'm off to play another round.


Friday, July 9, 2010

New Chainsaw - Oops... Tree vs. Fence problem.


Okay, Joy (my wife) has been fussing at me lately because I'm not getting things done around the house (yard work & home repairs) since I've been unemployed.  So I go to Lowe's today and buy an inexpensive 16" chain saw and start chopping down trees in the backyard (they keep dropping leaves into the pool) as requested.  All WAS going well until I started chopping on this one tree next to our fence line (keep in mind I've never used a chainsaw or cut down a tree in my entire life).

Well, I read up on tree cutting and understood how to make the needed cuts and where.  The only problem is that this one particular tree didn't read the same instructions I did on where it was to fall.  Stupid Ass Tree!!!  It started falling backwards in the wrong direction (over my fence towards the neighbors property). 

Well I stopped my cutting and strapped the tree to an adjacent bigger tree.  It's holding so far...  If it makes it through out the night I'll call in a professional tomorrow to see if he/she/we can finish the job without damaging the fence or any property.  Hopefully if it does come down tonight it will only do some minor fence damage that I could perhaps fix tomorrow.

I'll follow-up this post tomorrow and let you know how it turned out.

-Good Night Irene

Okay, so I got the tree down today.  First I had to take down a section of my neighbour's privacy fence.  Then I had to take down my chain-link fence.  Finally I made the final cuts on the tree and brought it down.  I've been bucking the tree for hours in the 100° heat and had to go inside.  I have never sweat so much in my life.

The neighbour's fence has been re-assembled but my chain-link is still down.  I'll have to get a fence stretcher to put it back in order.  I'm in no hurry for that, it can wait a while.

Well that's it.  Tree is down and no damage. Nothing else to say for now.