Ubuntu Adventure

I am finally facing the demise of XP on my old home computer.  My faithful Dell XPS 400 has been limping along for months on XP, which has been in a state where I can't even shut it down.  Updates no longer take and even cause it to fail.  I've tried a reinstall, but even that has had little long-term effect.

So I went out the other night and purchased a 1TB drive at OfficeDepot, anticipating that I would have some time over Thanksgiving to work on it.   I had already downloaded Edubuntu (just Ebuntu with some extra software wrapped in with the distro) and was able to successfully install it.

So far, I've been able to get it running and have spent hours looking through all the preinstalled software.  Additionally, I installed MonoDevelop and played around with making an application in C#.

A few notes on some things that I ran into:

• Had some problems getting the Flash player to work with Firefox, so tried Chromium and that seemed to behave when I was trying to watch YouTube.
• The latest MonoDevelop (4.x) is not available on Ubuntu, so 3.x will have to do.  Debian does have an inferior version of 4.x but 4.2.1 seems to be only on Windows as of this writing.
• When I tried to run RhythmBox, it complained about not having the right plugins.  Found the following post useful:
• http://askubuntu.com/questions/133174/how-to-play-mp3-files-using-rhythmbox
• Once I ran "sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras", everything worked fine.

 Hopefully, this will be useful to someone (perhaps myself if I have to reinstall).

Spring (English) translation of the song Primavera (Spanish) from Carlos Santana lyrics

Translation of the song Primavera (Spanish) from Carlos Santana lyrics:

"Spring"

Rain of sun
as a blessing
Life is reborn with its light
spring is here
all is like this
back to the root
time of unquiet youth
in spring already.

The black earth becomes green
and the mountains and the desert,
A beautiful garden.

As the seed
brings new life
there's in this spring, a new era.

In the air of this new universe
today there is freedom
in spring already.

The black earth becomes green
and the mountains and the desert,
A beautiful garden.

As the seed
brings new life
there's in this spring, a new era.

Physicists assemble world's smallest snowman • The Register

Physicists assemble world's smallest snowman • The Register

OK... this didn't exactly bolster my confidence in our national laboratories work, but it looks neat.

Inside a global cybercrime ring | Reuters

Inside a global cybercrime ring Reuters

Ever wonder what life's like for the "people" who write software that rips off your life savings...

"As business boomed, the firm added a human resources department, hired an internal IT staff and built a call center to dissuade its victims from seeking credit card refunds. Employees were treated to catered holiday parties and picnics with paintball competitions. Top performers got bonuses as young workers turned a blind eye to the harm the software was doing."

BBC News - Mobile that allows bosses to snoop on staff developed

BBC News - Mobile that allows bosses to snoop on staff developed


Surely, this technology will never be abused by management...

"For example, the KDDI mobile phone strapped to a cleaning worker's waist can tell the difference between actions performed such as scrubbing, sweeping, walking an even emptying a rubbish bin."

"The aim of the new system, according to KDDI, is to enable employees to work more efficiently and managers to easily evaluate their employees' performance while away from the office."

Somali pirates mistakenly attack Dutch warship. Oops. / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Somali pirates mistakenly attack Dutch warship. Oops. / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Seriously... no one is going to take these guys serious until they pull up in a ship like the "Black Pearl". I mean skiffs... really? Do yourselves a favor guys, at least buy some binoculars, for Pete's sake! Oh, and maybe a copy of "Janes Fighting Ships".

From MSNBC??? Obama, racism and Jimmy Carter

Obama, racism and Jimmy Carter - CQ Politics- msnbc.com:

A great quote from an unexpected source...

"“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,” Carter told NBC News.

Republicans called Carter’s remarks “very destructive” (Newt Gingrich) or “an outrage” (GOP chairman Michael Steele, who happens to be black himself).

But otherwise party leaders stifled themselves, apparently on the principle that you don’t get in the way of an opponent when he’s shooting himself in the foot.

Meanwhile, it took the White House about six seconds to disassociate itself from Carter, whose pro-Palestinian views have also annoyed many Democrats."

Windmills Are Killing Our Birds - WSJ.com

Windmills Are Killing Our Birds - WSJ.com by Robert Bryce

Wait... this can't be... windmills are our friends and have no adverse effects on our environment.

"... Yet there is one group of energy producers that are not being prosecuted for killing birds: wind-power companies. And wind-powered turbines are killing a vast number of birds every year.

"A July 2008 study of the wind farm at Altamont Pass, Calif., estimated that its turbines kill an average of 80 golden eagles per year. The study, funded by the Alameda County Community Development Agency, also estimated that about 10,000 birds—nearly all protected by the migratory bird act—are being whacked every year at Altamont..."