existence trainer

Thinking ahead to the next LTS ubuntu release (after Lucid)

2010-02-14T22:19:00.001-05:00

This post is purely speculative, but I like to speculate. I'm thinking ahead to the next LTS release. If the past reflects the future, then the next one should be 12.04. Of coures Lucid isn't out yet, so its hard to judge exactly how it will turn out. But besides some social networking stuff, the usual application updates, and hopefully more stability and hardware support, its not going to be a very exciting release. I'll probably use it though for a year or two while some really big changes come to the Ubuntu distro. It is my thinking about this that leads me speculate about the next LTS.

One of the biggest changes will beGnome 3.0, which, from the screenshots I've seen, seems to incorporate a number of fairly radical usability changes. It will be interesting to see exactly the shape it will take - esp the shell part.

Which applications will likely gain more prominence in the distro? I'm sure Banshee will finally become the default music player, and maybe the default video player if the Banshee folks devise a nifty way for it have a standalone video player (and I've never really liked Totem player anyway - I've always been a VLC guy). Openoffice might get around to overhauling their UI according to all the feedback on their Project Renaissance prototypes (even though the first prototype as uuuugly) - and maybe it be ready in by 1012. Hopefully Empathy will be feature complete - offering things like the ability to change the font stuff in rich ways, but more importantly, I hope it will be able to compete with Skpe on the Linux platform.

There are lots of little applications I'm excited about that aren't quite ready yet (though they are developing rapidly). For example, I want a damn good task manager (and the one in Evolution sucks hard), and it looks like GTG might step in and fill the gap. Presently I use Tasque, but the development of it looks to have stopped, so I have little hope for it. I'm looking forward to the single window version of GIMP, because seriously its presently a pain in the but to use. Video editors are starting to take off on Linux, and I'm keeping my eye on Pitivi and Openshot (though I also really like Kdenlive) - I'm hoping they will become a lot more feature rich in the next couple of iterations.

By god, I hope most of the issues will PulseAudio will finally be worked out. Many, many of them have since Hardy (thank goodness), but there still seem to be a lot more. Will Evolution finally get an overhaul? Probably not, but here's to hoping. I also wonder whether or not Netflix will finally be playable on Linux. I really hope so, but I have a hard time seeing Microsoft handing over the info on their DRM stack. Fuckers. And speaking about fuckers - fuck you Poulsbo guys. Get your shit together and put out a decent Linux driver for the hardware.

Let's see, what else? Maybe Songbird will figure out how it get in the Ubuntu repos (and hopefully by then the Linux client will have feature parity with their Windows client), along with Handbrake. Maybe Nautilus will finally give more information when copying over files (this one just makes me mad - its been years of annoyance and nothing from the developers besides petty disputes).

Oh, and lets not forget another biggie: Btrfs. I'm pretty sure this will be the default file system for the next LTS release, and I'm looking forward to it.

I'm hopeful with the release of Lucid, Linux will start to get a big up-tick in use by people who haven't really considered using anything besides Windows or OS X before. Although Linux systems still lack many of the very robust applications that Windows and Macs have, for daily use it pretty much has everything you need. The only thing that needs to change is the perception, momentum, and fear of change that a lot of users have about switching to Linux. I'm pretty excited about the release of Lucid, but I'm really excited about all of the big changes that are likely to happen over the next two years leading up to the next LTS.

What I want from 10.04

2009-12-18T09:15:00.000-05:00

Only two things really: More bug fixing and more hardware regression testing.

I think the Ubuntu community at large would take very kindly to pushing the release back to 10.06 so that there would be a couple of solid months of doing nothing else besides testing and fixing.

I really want Ubuntu to succeed. 9.10 was way to buggy to be a proper release, and I'm afraid that Canonicals commitment to a regular schedule will trump making it as solid and bug-free as possible.

Consider that Windows 7 had what seemed like almost a full year of beta testing, a couple of extra months to make Lucid the best Linux distro release to date would be a refreshing and appreciated change.

Consider it, please.

Demagogue

2009-12-05T16:21:00.000-05:00

From Merriam-Webster:
demagogue: a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power

There is probably no better description for what it is that Rush Limbaugh does.

The Afghanistan Decision

2009-11-30T14:53:00.000-05:00

I don't know what Obama has decided, but I'm very very worried. Its a terrible decision to have to make, and it will haunt his presidency either way. War is a horrific thing, and I can never really truly support a war, even if I think it is necessary. But I don't know if what is about to happen is necessary. I don't believe its largely about combat missions (though I'm sure its implied), but more about patrolling, providing security, and building a strong army/police force to combat the Taliban. Nonetheless if he increases troop levels, it will become a defining moment of his presidency.

Not only he is going to have a very hard time with the base of his party, but it might taint all the good that he is trying to do (and prevent much of it if - and when - we get mired in a long, violent struggle). The Republicans will continue to lie about him - relying on the stupidly inane memes that Democrats don't support our troops, that he's cutting the military budget, that he hasn't done enough to secure 'victory' (for whatever the fuck that is). They lie about him constantly, will continue to do so, and there is nothing he can do to change that.

I know Obama made the war in Afghanistan a part of his candidacy, I was slightly troubled by it then, but I'm especially troubled by it now. I even admire his resolve to keep to his commitments, but I'm sure this alone is not enough to go to war. No doubt this would be a promise that would be joyful to break if the conditions no longer called for it. I know the mission has changed - and being very explicit about what the mission is is of utmost importance. If its no longer about tracking down the Al-Qaeda terrorists that attacked us - and how can it be since Al-Qaeda has largely moved from the region? - then is it mainly about preventing the Taliban from regaining control (and thereby being a safehaven for terrorists)? Or is it about Pakistan somehow? And if so, wouldn't it just be better to support them directly? Sure its all of the above, but fuck, is expanding the war effort the best way? There are lots of nasty and corrupt regimes out there that don't like us very much - but that doesn't justify sending troops in.

I was very impressed when Obama came out not that long ago and rejected all of the proposals that were presented to him regarding Afghanistan. It was a sign of real leadership to demand something better, and not simply choose from a list of bad options (like Bush the 'decider'). But was a better option really presented? If not, then despite all Cheney's blathering stupidity about 'dithering', he should continue to work to find the best possible option even if it takes longer than his detractors say it should. I will listen closely what he has to say, but I'm already scared by the rhetoric being used - 'finish the job'. I can only interpret this as meaning that we need to secure a truly democratic government (as opposed to a merely corrupt sham) that has both broad appeal to the populace to engage with and also has enough power to sustain itself from incursions of the Taliban. But even when I put it in words it sound idyllic, and have a hard time believing that we can 'finish' this - even if we are there for a lot lot longer. And they know we won't be there for a lot longer. And we shouldn't be. Fuck.

Brief Review of Karmic and Hopes of Lucid

2009-11-19T15:38:00.000-05:00

Karmic Koala is out! I've been using it though the beta release, and overall I'm really impressed. There are a LOT of changes under the hood, which has given rise to some unfortunate instability, but the direction the distribution is going in seems to be good. There are the beginnings of a visual refresh going on as well - I hope for more in the future! The main annoyance I have is the large number of serious bugs that came in Karmic. For example, I couldn't burn a CD from Rhythmbox (it has subsequently been fixed, but for a couple of weeks was an annoying regression). There are also reports of data loss do to the switch to the new ext4 filesystem (bug report here) - this makes me very worried about switching to ext4.

For the rest of this post, though, I want to discuss what I hope for in the next version of Ubuntu, codenamed Lucid Lynx. Given that this is an LTS release, I think that, along with the normal package/application updates, the main foci of this release should be: (i) being as stable and as bug-free as possible, and (ii) provide a more thorough revamp of the look and feel of the desktop.

Be as stable and bug free as possible

This is essential. Application developers have come a long way in providing the necessary functionally for getting things done using free and open source software. By in large Ubuntu has done a good job of integrating these applications into the distribution in a stable, easy to access way. That said, there are plenty of bugs that plague the distribution, and it would be nice to see a concerted effort (more than usual) to eliminate as many of these as possible. I shouldn't have to wait for a subsequent update to burn CDs from Rhythmbox - it should work out of the box (and missing obvious stuff like this indicates a lack of quality control). A small bug that I find crazy annoying is that glipper dies most of the time I login. Really?? This bug was reported over a year ago, and yet never has been fixed. Is it really that hard to find a fix for an application that crashes every time I login? Annoyed, I am.

I think that the decision to sync with Debian testing rather than unstable is a good decision in that various communities can cooperate on eliminating as many of these as possible at the same time (and, as implied by the name, there will hopefully be considerably more testing as well). That said, given that this is the first time Ubuntu developers have decided to sync with testing I'm sure unanticipated issues will arise, and they should not be unwilling to change the release date from 10.04 to 10.06 to make it as stable as possible.

The main reason for this is that if Canonical is serious about partnering with the corporate world, they need releases that can be relied on for a long time to provide a stable computer platform. And Hardy was a failure in this respect - annoyingly buggy to an extreme. But to this day I have to use Hardy on my Mini 12 because this is the only version of Ubuntu that Dell supports on this netbook (I have come to hate GMA 500).

I'm also wearying of updating my computer every 6 months. I want a stable operating system that I can rely on for a year or two without problems or a need to update. This brings me to another problem I've run into. Some applications require regular updates to remain functional. Yahoo, for example, changes its IM protocol on occasion - breaking Pidgin. When this occurs, Pidgin should be automatically updated to restore the functionality before the change. I shouldn't be required to sync up with an experimental PPA to get it to work again (in fact, I don't even think I should be required to use the unsupported backports repo). And this should apply to any application that would have problems like this. Don't leave me less functional because I want to continue using a stable supported release over multiple release cycles.

Provide a more thorough revamping of the look and feel of the desktop.

If you nail down the bugs, I'll be happy. If you make the user experience more satisfying and the visuals more pleasing, then I'll be enthusiastic. I can already start seeing some of the work of the design team that Shuttleworth hired to work on the user interface (for example, i love the new icons). The colors are better, but haven't yet found a sweet spot, and the desktop feels a little to blocky rather than slick. I don't exactly have a lot of good ideas, but I'll know it when I see it. I for example really like the refreshed look of KDE 4, though I'm not really inclined to use it.

The 100 paper-cuts was an excellent idea. I hope this will be continued! It definitely improved the distribution in lots of little respects. Do it again! In fact I'd say expand the idea a little. Maybe target, say, 75 trivial fixes, 20 fairly simple (though not trivial) fixes (like this one in particular), and 5 larger fixes. If all of these were related to the user experience, then over the next couple of iterations of the release cycle, huge strides in usability will be made.

Once people see how slick, functional, and easy to use Linux is, they will realize that, with the exception of things like gaming, they have very little reason to stick with Windows and might even get hooked on Ubuntu

Fuck, lost a lot of pictures!!

2009-09-15T20:10:00.001-05:00

I'm so pissed at myself. My computer totally crashed (because I was using a development version that wasn't very stable), and I forgot to backup my fucking pictures. I'm super pissed. For future reference, here is what I need to backup on a crash or before big updates:

Photos folder
Music folder
dev folder
.purple folder
.tomboy folder
.tmp2 folder
scribefire.sqlite file

Splitting mp3 files on Ubuntu (esp useful for audiobooks)

2009-08-18T16:49:00.001-05:00

check out mp3splt. Its not in the Jaunty repos, but it is in Karmic!

Tools lacking on Ubuntu

2009-08-18T13:43:00.001-05:00

Here are some tools that Ubuntu, or Linux generally, seems to lack:

A good WYSIWYG html editor.

Up until about a year ago, I was pretty satisfied with quanta plus. Since then I have become increasingly disappointed with it, mainly because no one seems to be porting it to Qt4, or developing it substantially. What had such great potential seems to be languishing.
KompoZer crashes a lot - I'm waiting for the new version to come out (still in alpha), but I'm less than certain it will be better (and NVU is dead).
Bluefish - although its not a WYSIWYG editor, I still think it could be good if they'd ever release a new version that updates a lot of antiquated crap in there (like not knowing how to open a browser easily)

Decent blogging software

Mainly I use scribefire (I'm using it now) - its ok - but it only offers the simplest options for blogging. If I want any type of formating that goes beyond a bullet point, I've got to know my html (which it visually formats in a very unreadable fashion).
There is an extension for OpenOffice called Sun Weblog Publisher. With it, its possible to format your blog post in openoffice and then upload it to your site. Unfortunately, its closed-source, and only seems to be updated sporadically when someone at Sun feels like it. If I knew there were an active developer community, then it would make me somewhat happier, but it doesn't seem like there is. I expect it to become increasingly antiquated the longer its not updated (and I wish they'd freaking open-source it).

Ubuntu LTS Support

2009-06-12T16:15:00.000-05:00

I'm beginning to get frustrated with certain aspects of the Ubuntu development cycle, and in this post I'm going to try my best to spell out my complaint and what I think should be done about it.

My Complaint

First, let me say that I'm a huge Ubuntu fan. Since Gutsy (when I first started using Ubuntu) each of the iterations of Ubuntu has made large, important strides to becoming a preeminent OS. Many of the things that annoyed me about the desktop experience have been have been fixed or minimized, and with the release of Jaunty I've had very few complaints about things not doing what I want/expect them to, very few crashes, and less annoyances than at any other time using a linux based OS. As I've written before, Jaunty is the first time a Linux vendor has released a distribution that I'd pretty much recommend to anyone. As you can see, I'm a very happy user.

So my complaint then isn't about the great work being done on Ubuntu, its rather an end-user complaint about what the distribution requires me to do to use the latest and greatest releases of software applications. In particular, my complaint is specifically about LTS releases. Take Hardy, for example. Hardy, being an LTS, has three years support, whereas the non-LTS releases (like Intrepid, Jaunty, and Karmic) only have 18 months support. In both cases the support is pretty much limited to security fixes and does not include application version updates except through the Backports repos. Even then, the Backports repos offer a limited number of application updates often not including the application updates that I most desire (like the newest versions of Openoffice), and they are accompanied with the proviso that they are not supported by the Ubuntu team. This the background, now let me get to my complaint.

There are two main types of Ubuntu end-users, which I'll refer to as enthusiasts and lay-users. The enthusiast does not mind reinstalling or upgrading to a new version of Ubuntu each release cycle. In fact, they often start early with one of the alphas to watch the progress of Ubuntu development (this is what I do). They are generally careful about backing up their data and they generally are more familiar with the risks of updating than lay-users. Lay-users, on the other hand, don't want to have to worry about reinstalling or upgrading an OS, they just want what they already have to work, and they want to be able to easily update certain applications when newer versions come out. Not only are less aware that updating can go wrong in any number of ways, and often do not properly back up their data, they don't want to spend hours updating, and they definitely don't want to trouble-shoot anything when things go wrong. But the only way they know how to get new versions of applications is if they upgrade or reinstall.

This is where LTS releases come in, or at least where I think they should come in. Given their extended support they would be perfect for lay-users - except that their support is way too limited. Security patches are needed, but they are not enough. LTS releases also need to be able to allow for the easy installation of new versions of programs. This way lay-users can install an LTS version of Ubuntu, and then not have to concern themselves with the six month release cycle of the Ubuntu developers. They can live content with it until a new LTS version is released.

Solutions?

In my view, LTS releases should work in the following way. As it does now, an LTS release should offer a stabilized API for developers to work with along with a continuous supply of security fixes for the supported software, but it should also widen what it considers supported software for an LTS release to include newer versions of important programs that are released through the LTS lifecycle. I'm thinking of certain programs in particular, ones like OpenOffice, Firefox, and Pidgin. There should be an option to upgrade to the newer version of the programs, but no compulsion to do so. In other words, Ubuntu should offer a way to update to the newest versions of certain programs (which programs can be a mtter determined by demand) without relying on more risky options (one's they don't often even know about) like installing PPA repos, using getdeb, or waiting for backports to offer it (which it may never). Various versions of these programs need to be officially supported in an LTS release so that users can gain the benefits of these updates without having to upgrade their entire OS or rely on less safe deb repos. In this way, lay-users can be happy with an LTS for years without becoming frustrated that they are not getting the latest applications developers have to offer. Let the developers worry about the changes in undelying OS, this is largely invisible to most lay-users anyway. Lay-users care mainly about the applications, and they want an easy way to keep up with new releases of them.

Lakhdar Boumediene

2009-06-08T19:27:00.000-05:00

I hope he does sue the US government - and I hope to hell he wins. This is so outrageously unacceptable.

7½ Years For Being Muslim ~ The Story Of Lakhdar Boumediene

Ubuntu 9.04 Review and the Future

2009-04-30T16:21:00.001-05:00

Jaunty is very good. Its the first version of a linux distribution that I'd pretty much recommend to anyone to try (with only a few minor caveats about possible hardware issues and the fact that Linux users still can't watch netflix). It has made vast improvements over Hardy from a year ago. Its stable, snappy, and quite a number of annoyances that I onced experienced have been fixed or minimized. Below I go through these in more detail. Now, though I want to focus on what I hope for the next version of Ubuntu (codenamed "Karmic Koala").

Cloud computing is the wave of the future, so I'm very happy this development cycle is making this a focus. But I'm doubtful they will go far enough to really make a lot of difference for most people. What people want now is to be able to sync up there data with various computers they possess and with online services they rely on. To this effect:

Evolution needs to sync seamlessly with Google calander, email, and contacts.
Evolution also needs to sync seamlessly with services like "Remember the Milk". Tasque does this ok presently on Linux, but it has a way to go to be really polished
Tomboy needs to be able to sync across multiple computers. Yes, there is the beginning of such functionality already built into it, but its hard to set up, and even when it is, it doesn't sync automatically.
Thank god for Dropbox, an excellent program that should be further promoted

Certain features need to be implimented consistantly:

I really like the new notification system, but programs like Firefox and Amarok have not been made to use this system.
Pulseaudio is MUCH better than it was a year ago, but it still causes problems on occasion. Hammer out the rest of the details so we can move on!
Wireless connectivity has also improved greatly, but I still sometimes have problems connecting (or dropping) when those people around me on a Mac or Windows have no problem. On occasion I've had to abandon Network Manager altogether for WICD, which sometimes works when the former doesn't

Either switch to better programs, or put money towards the impovement of certain obvious deficiencies.

Its time to give up on Rhythmbox, Banshee is fast outgrowing the maintainance only iterations of Rhythmbox. That said, if Banshee doesn't include a watch folders option in the next release, I will totally take back this claim.
Tracker Search Tool is my least favorite program on Ubuntu. It sucks so bad it hurts. But Beagle is a memory hog, so at present there doesn't seem like a good search tool on linux (esp one with tens of thousands of files like mine).
Evolution is not a pleasure to use. I'm waiting for Thunderbird 3 to come out and put real pressure on Evolution developers to make it a better program. It needs to seamlessly integrate with online services. A makeover is really overdue as well.
Multimedia editing is slowly progressing overall. A year ago I couldn't find a video editor I liked, whereas now I'm quite a fan of Kdenlive. Audacity didn't work at all, but now does. Keep up the good work here!

Reviewing Previous Annoyances

In February 2009 I had this to say about my hopes for 9.04 (Jaunty), and in April 2008 I had this to say about my hoped for Intrepid. Its time to reevaluate both of these and see how Ubuntu 9.04 measures up.

A GUI wrapper for utf: gutf is pretty good except that I still haven't figured out how to set up internet connection sharing with it. But Firestarter works fine, so I'm going to mark this one off the list.
Two-way synchronization between evolution and Google Calander: Calander synchronization is there, but I don't quite trust it until its been tested and advertised by developers.
Advanced Desktop settings already pre-installed (or some simplified version of it). NO. Still an annoyance, but I've gotten bored enough with configuring it that I no longer do
Tracker Search Tool needs to have a phrase search. NO. HAHA, tracker isn't even included in Jaunty. And that is for the better. Tracker Search Tool still sucks ass.

Bug fixes and Feature Requests:

nautilus 'replace file' dialog box could give more information. No. THIS ONE ANNOYS ME MORE THAN ANYTHING. I want to stop using nautilus because of this. A LONG, LONG standing missing functionality
Tracker doesn't search for phrases in enclosed quotes. Still shit, as I mentioned above
Audacity does not mesh with PulseAudio. YES - it works! Thanks for the good work

What I want to see included in the next iteration of Ubuntu:

OpenOffice 3.1 - This should be there. Every major improvement of OOo is an important step, though I wonder when they will finally get to beautifying the program and optimizing the speed
Firefox 3.1 - This should be ready I believe (though I'm less than certain) - it should be a pretty big improvement.
Hopefully most of the rest of KDE applications will be ported to QT 4. I'm looking at you: Quanta Plus and K3B
Amarok 2.1 - Amarok 2.0 was somewhat of a disappointment, but it did leave lots of room for potential. Version 2.1 is the first major step to actualizing that potential, it looks like a very good improvement
Songbird 1.2 - Until it makes it into the Repos, I'm not holding my breath
Moonlight 2.0 - I doubt it will be ready in time, but when this comes out it will be huge. There will be no reason we cannot finally get Netflix on Linux.
Last time I evalutated Ubuntu, I lemented that there wasn't a decent ebook manager out there for linux (eKitaab still doesn't work). But now there is a program that is in heavily development that looks really good called calibre. It looks to become one of the best cross-platform ebook managers around. Kudos to the developers.

fstab (for future reference)

2009-03-10T15:27:00.000-05:00

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'vol_id --uuid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
#
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=7132a62f-0906-4831-bdc3-f8ba0427ca88 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# none was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=c903185e-8b77-49cd-bdcb-f2e8bc4228bd none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/sda6 /media/storage1 ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 2
/dev/sdb1 /media/storage2 ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 2

Linux/Ubuntu Configuration

2009-03-10T14:45:00.005-05:00

Here are the posts where I've provided tutorials on how to get things working on either Linux in general or Ubuntu in particular:

Accessing your Ubuntu Box from Anywhere

My fstab

Here are some quick troubleshooting tips I've encountered when using Ubuntu or the software on it:

Import Openoffice Spreadsheet into a Writer Table

Download Streaming Media on Linux

Useful Intrepid Repos

TOR Configuration in Ubuntu and Firefox

Restore and Backup Virtualbox VDI files

Donnie Davies - Take My Hand

2009-02-28T15:30:00.001-05:00

Donnie Davis. Remember him? Well, in 2007 he made quite the splash with his video "The Bible Says" (you can see it here). Well I just noticed that he's out with a new video. And wow!! The innuendo is much stronger than the last one, but I love it!

Donnie Davies - Take My Hand - watch more funny videos

Here are the lyrics (as best as I can make them out):

Homosexuality .
Homosexuality.
Homosexuality is a heartbreaking and crippling disease.
But there is something you can do about it:.

Will you come ?
When you feel almighty power
When I reach out to touch you will you come?
Will you come inside the gates of heaven?
Into eternal glory will you come?

Are you bruised and broken
Poisoned with deceit
Do you stand for nothing
Shattered by defeat
Are you barely human
All but dead inside
Just a rotten soul
By your own design
Even though you're lusting for another man
Swallow all your pride
Reach up and take my hand

And in the face of evil
In the face of sin
In the face of Satan
In the face of men

Will you come?
When you feel almighty power
When I'm reaching out to touch you will you come?
Will you come inside the gates of heaven ?
Into eternal glory will you come?

Rising! Rising! Rising up to heaven. Rising up!
Standing up! Standing up as one
Push it! Push it! Push it is to righteousness?
When you feel it will you come?
Will you come?
Are you coming?

My Ubuntu has been Breaking Lately

2009-02-19T19:57:00.001-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks, I have experience a larger number of stubborn problems on my Ubuntu Intrepid machine. Here are just a couple of the problems I've been experiencing:

A number of annoying Firefox problems. Two in particular: (1) When I'm downloading files, sometimes firefox will tell me that its got just a few more seconds to download when in fact it has finished downloading. This is annoying because it leaves *.part files all over the place. (2) When I shut down firefox, it has become more frequent that it doesn't fully shut down, and instead I have to go into the system monitor to kill it manually.
VLC stopped working for me on *.mp4 and *.wmv files. In fact the only sorts of videos it seems to play consistently are *.mpeg files. And yes, I have all the codecs installed (so fuck off). I have to use mplayer instead.
When I insert my flash drive into the USB port, it no longer automatically mounts it. Instead I have to go to Places->Computer and double click on it, at which point it gives the following message: Internal error: No mount object for mounted volume. It nontheless mounts it. This bug has been reported here.

Intrepid, though an improvement over Hardy in terms of stability, still though isn't that stable. I'm really hoping that Jaunty will finally reach a real stable state (it should not be fucking hard to mount a flash drive).

How to import an openoffice spreadsheet into a table

2009-02-18T07:45:00.001-05:00

The tip can be found here. Basically, here is what you do:

Create a new Writer Table with the number of columns and rows you need
In Calc, select and copy the range of cells you want to import into Writer
In Writer, use Paste Special below or above the Writer table (not in the table, yet). For 'Selection', choose either "Formatted text [RTF]" or "HTML (HyperText Markup Language)". This creates a temporary table.
Select and copy the contents of the newly created (but badly formatted) temporary table.
Paste the contents of the temporary table into the original table you created in the first step.
Delete the temporary table.

What I Hope Will Be Ready for Ubuntu "Jaunty Jackalope"

2009-02-17T14:36:00.001-05:00

Back in April, when I was using Hardy, I wrote this about what I'd like to see in future versions of Ubuntu. Now that Intrepid is out, its time to re-evalute the list to see what made it and what didn't

A GUI wrapper for utf: YES. Its called gutf. That said, I still haven't figured out how to set up internet connection sharing with it :( Until then, I'll stick with Firestareter
Two-way synchronization between evolution and Google calander: YES (at least partial). In Hardy there was one-way synchronization. In Intrepid, although its somewhat hidden, its there. My Impression - not ready for prime time. For better or worse, cloud computing is going to be a big part of the way we do things. Google, of all companies, will be front and center in this.
Advanced Desktop settings already pre-installed (or some simplified version of it). NO. This still confuses me - if you are going to make compiz a default part of the Desktop out of the box, then why not have a configuration tool right out of the box as well.
Tracker Search Tool needs to have a phrase search. NO. This one really freaking annoys me.

Well, one out of four is a start. Now looking to the future, what do I hope will make it into the next release of Ubuntu (codename Jaunty)? Here's what I'm keeping my eye on:

Bug Fixes and Feature Requests

nautilus 'replace file' dialog box could give more information. This one has been a long-time annoyance to me. In fact, I've moved over to KDE a couple of times because of it (I've always eventually come back to Gnome, which I do like better, though KDE 4.2 is giving them the run for their money). No indication that this will be fixed in time.
Tracker doesn't search for phrases in enclosed quotes. Until this is fixed, Tracker is not very useful for my needs. That said, its doubtful it will be fixed in Jaunty.
Audacity does not mesh with PulseAudio. One indication that Ubuntu (or Linux distros generally) isn't quite ready for the general user is the fact that the main audio editor for the Linux platform doesn't play well with the way Ubuntu is designed. Apparently the UbuntuStudio people have gotten it to work, and the bug report page indicates that they have been able to patch it for Jaunty. Yay.

New Applications

OpenOffice 3.1 - Although version 3.0 is out, it didn't make it into Intrepid (which is fine by me, I'd rather have a stable nicely integrated version included rather than one that was rushed in at the last minute).
Firefox 3.1 - Can't wait!
KDE 4.2 - A huge improvement. This is looking really nice
Kdenlive 7.1 - My favorite video editor. The nice thing is that you can already use it on Intrepid
Amarok 2.x - The 1.4.x series of Amarok is already the most feature rich music player on Linux (and almost any platform), and Amarok 2 looks to be an even better audio player.
Songbird 1.1 - Actually, this will be out in about a month. The version I want needs a "watch folders" feature and the ability to play videos.
Boxee - If you are a Netflix subscriber, but only use Linux on your computers, there is a real sense in which you are getting

Other stuff (needed, though though it might not make me happy)

Ok, the software in this category I have a hard time getting excited about. Either it is not open source or its open source with strings attached. Nonetheless, its needed for a Desktop that works with more and more web applications that are popping up all over the place.

Adobe AIR
Mono 2 and Moonlight 1.0 - Unfortunately for Linux users, more and more sites are moving to Starlight in order to deliver a media rich web experience. I say unfortunately because Microsoft does not support Starlight on the Linux platform.

Dream List

A robust 2-way syncronization of Evolutio with Google. For good or for worse, the future is cloud computing. Cloud computing allows the synchonization of data from various workstations and mobile devices.... Evolution needs to make this front and center of their priorities. I'm afraid that Linux applications will lag behind their Windows counterparts.
Better video editors - Presently there are limited options on linux, and each of the options themselves have certain drawbacks.
Easier theming of Gnome - Imagine this: You go to System->Preferences->Appearance and, under the "Theme" tab, after not liking the few installed themes there to choose from, you press the "Install" button and it takes you to a window/site/whatever where you can look over other various themes that have been put together. You then are given the option of selecting one, and after doing so, it goes and downloads it for you, installs it, and applies it to your system. Easy as pie.
An ebook manager that works - as far as I can tell, the only ebook manager out there is eKitaab, but it is broken as hell.
Support for portable apps - Portable apps are becoming more and more important for me.

Debian Live CD

2009-02-17T11:37:00.001-05:00

If you are interested in Debian (esp. because Lenny was just released - yay), but don't want to install it on your system, let me introduce you to the Debian Live website. Here you can download live cds of this most venerable of distributions.

Songbird is becoming one kick ass media player (some installation tips)

2008-12-09T08:05:00.001-05:00

I've been keeping a close watch on the development of Songbird, a fantastically innovative cross-platform audio player in the spirit of itunes (though it looks like it might exceed itunes in the near future). Recently version 1.0 was released, and so I thought I'd briefly review it here, as well as provide some nifty little tips that make the experience all the more enjoyable (especially for Ubuntu users).

First thing, songbird is not yet in the Ubuntu repositories (hopefully this will change for the Jaunty release) - so there are two main ways to install it:

Download the tarball package, extract it where you want, and symlink to it in your .bashrc (this is they way I did it).
Download the Songbird deb package from getdeb: here.

Once installed, there are a couple of addons that I add immediately:

LyricMaster - Fetch lyrics and save them back to the file
MediaFlow - Like itunes album art preview. Normally, though, I have this disabled because mashtape is much more functional.
Music Recommendations - Pulls up Last.fm recommendations
YABS - One KICK ASS skin!! I sort of wish it was the default look of songbird (it makes it look a lot less like an itunes clone).

Here is a screenshot when YABS is enabled:

Pretty freakin sweet if you ask me!

Next I enable Flash and Java for Songbird. Here is how on Ubuntu Intrepid (assuming you already have both installed on your system):

For Java: ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.10/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so ~/Songbird/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so
For Flash: ln -s /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so ~/Songbird/plugins/libflashplayer.so

There, that should do it. Enjoy!!

There are still a number of features coming down the in the next release (due out Feburary!) that I'm really looking forward to (check out the roadmap):

Watch folder - so it can automatically keep track of changes in your library (this is my most desired feature)
Automatically fetch album art

I'm also looking forward to future inclusions of:

The ability to rip and burn cds
Support for video playback
Support for native look and feel
Improved dynamic/smart playlists

Beer Review #8: Total Domination IPA (Ninkasi Brewing Company)

2008-11-21T02:26:00.001-05:00

Appearance - Pours a medium orange/amber (its lighter than I expected). A off-white (eggshell?) head that holds well and leaves a decent lacing.

Smell - Very citrisy, with grapefruit notes dominating. Also the smell of hops is very prominant.

Taste - Nice and hoppy upfront (the hops definitely dominate), some acidity and sweetness in the middle (definitely more pronounced malt than I was expecting), and ends on a bitter piney note, coaxing me to take the next drink.

Mouthfeel - Good, strong carbonation that stimulates my taste buds when I roll it around my mouth.

Drinkability - An enjoyable IPA. A little sharper than I want, and not as complex as I may desire, but a solid IPA that I would not be hesitant to recommend (though it doesn't quit live up to its name).

7/B+

Download streaming media (mms) on Linux

2008-11-12T04:02:00.001-05:00

Give this a try:

mplayer mms://url -dumpstream -dumpfile foo.wmv

Using wine to run Microsoft Reader

2008-11-11T09:42:00.001-05:00

If you run linux and have .lit files then its a problem reading them. Fortunately you can use wine to get Microsoft Reader up and running. There is one extra step to get it working, though. First, download msvcirt.dll from here. Unzip it and place it in ~/.wine/drive_c/windows. Now download Microsoft Reader and install it using wine.

Windows Live Mail (Hotmail) stopped working on Ubuntu Linux

2008-11-11T09:34:00.001-05:00

If you can't reply to email on hotmail in Ubuntu, the following tip should help. Its Microsoft, again, trying to be incompatible with non-microsoft products (this is type of reason hardcore computer geeks hate microsoft, bastards) - but there is a way to get it working:

Type "about:config" (without the quotes) in Firefox address bar.
In the "filter" box type: general.useragent.override

If nothing shows up under "Preference Name", then right click the main window (i.e., under preference name) and choose "New" and then "String".

Enter the following preference name: general.useragent.override

For the string value, if your computer is a 32-bit architecture, then use:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86; en; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092510 Firefox/3.0.3

(all one line). If it is a 64-bit architecture, use:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092510 Firefox/3.0.3

There, that should make it work.

Enabling lame for ffmpeg when converting mpg to flv

2008-11-11T00:00:00.001-05:00

Athough more extensive directions can be found here, I had a hard time using it without getting a bunch of errors in the process, so I've set up this up as a guide that worked for me. I'm assuming you are using Intrepid Ubuntu on a 32-bit machine. Make sure you have enabled multiverse, universe, and the various source code repos.

On the command line:

sudo apt-get remove ffmpeg

wget http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg-export-snapshot.tar.bz2

tar jxvf ffmpeg-export-snapshot.tar.bz2

cd ffmpeg-*/

sudo apt-get install liba52-dev libdts-dev libgsm1-dev libvorbis-dev  libxvidcore4 libxvidcore-dev libdc1394-22-dev libfaac-dev  libmp3lame-dev libx264-dev  libfaad-dev libtheora-dev libsdl1.2-dev

./configure --prefix=/usr/local --disable-debug --enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-pthreads --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis  --enable-libxvid

Assuming everything goes through:

make

sudo make install

Then finally,

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib/

To test your installation:

ffmpeg -version

Blogging the US Constitution Index

2008-11-10T14:25:00.001-05:00

Preamble.

Article I. [The Legislative Branch]

Section 1. [Legislature]
Section 2. [The House of Representatives]
Section 3. [The Senate]
Sections 4 & 5. [Elections and Procedural Matter]
Section 6. [Compensation]
Section 7. [Legislative Process]
Section 8. [Powers of Congress]
Section 9. [Limitations on Congress]
Section 10. [State Powers Given Up to Congress]

Article II. The Executive Branch

Section 1. [The President and the Electoral Proces]
Sections 2 & 3. [Powers Granted to the President]
Section 4. [Impeachment]

Article III. The Judicial Branch

Section 1. [Judicial Powers]
Section 2. [Trial by Jury]
Section 3. [Treason]

Article IV. The Federal Relationship

Section 1. [States to Respect Each Others' Acts]
Section 2. [State Citizens]
Section 3. [U.S Territories and New States]
Section 4. [Duties of the U.S. Government Toward the States]

Article V. [Amending the Constitution]

Article VI. [The United States]

Section 1. Responsibility for Debts
Section 2. Supremacy of Federal Law and Treaties
Section 3. Oaths of Office to Support the Constitution

Article VII. Ratification of the Constitution

Amendments

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression
Amendment 2 - Right to bear Arms
Amendment 3 - Quartering of soldiers
Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure
Amendment 5 - Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings
Amendment 6 - Right to speedy trial, confrontation of witnesses
Amendment 7 - Trial by jury in civil cases
Amendment 8 - Cruel and Unusual punishment
Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution
Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People
Amendment 11 - Judicial Limits
Amendment 12 - Choosing the President, Vice President
Amendment 13 - Slavery Abolished
Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights
Amendment 15 - Race no bar to vote
Amendment 16 - Income Tax authorized
Amendment 17 - Senators elected by popular vote
Amendment 18 - Liquor abolished
Amendment 19 - Women's suffrage
Amendment 20 - Presidential, Congressional terms
Amendment 21 - Amendment 18 repealed
Amendment 22 - Presidential Term Limits
Amendment 23 - Presidential vote for District of Columbia
Amendment 24 - Poll taxes barred
Amendment 25 - Presidential disability and succession
Amendment 26 - Voting age set to 18 years
Amendment 27 - Congressional pay increases

Virtualizing Mac OS X on Ubuntu Linux

2008-11-07T11:14:00.001-05:00

Alright, it doesn't work great and crashes quite a bit, but at least its up and working.

If you want to get it running I'm assuming you have a licensed version of Mac OS X "Tiger" that you have copied to an .iso file.

Here's how to do it:

1. Through Synaptic or apt-get, install: pearpc
2. Next you need to create a virtual partition to install it onto. To create a 3 gig virtual drive, use the following command:

dd if=/dev/zero of=3gigharddisk.img bs=516096 seek=6241 count=0

To creating a 6 gig virtual drive:

dd if=/dev/zero of=6gigharddisk.img bs=516096 seek=12482 count=0

3. Now navigate to /etc/ppc and open ppc.conf in an editor (in root). Here is a stripped down version of my config file:

## PearPC Configuration File

## Start Resolution

ppc_start_resolution = "800x600x15"

## Redraw interval (in ms)

redraw_interval_msec = 20

## Key codes

key_toggle_mouse_grab = "F12"
key_toggle_full_screen = "Alt+Return"

## Loader

prom_bootmethod = "auto"

#prom_bootmethod = "force"
#prom_loadfile = "test/yaboot"
#prom_env_bootpath = "disk"
#prom_env_bootargs = ""
prom_env_machargs = "-v"
#prom_driver_graphic = "video.x"
#page_table_pa = 104857600

## CPU Config

#cpu_pvr = 0x00088302

## Main memory (default 128 MiB)

#memory_size=0x8000000

## IO Devices

## PCI IDE Config

pci_ide0_master_installed = 1
pci_ide0_master_image = "/media/storage2/tmp/3gigharddisk.img"
#pci_ide0_master_type = "hd"
pci_ide0_slave_installed = 1
pci_ide0_slave_image = "/media/storage2/Computer Software and Hardware/OSes/Mac OS X Install DVD/MacOSXInstallDVD.iso"
pci_ide0_slave_type = "cdrom"

## Network

pci_3c90x_installed = 0
pci_3c90x_mac = "de:ad:ca:fe:12:34"
pci_rtl8139_installed = 0
pci_rtl8139_mac = "de:ad:ca:fe:12:35"

## USB

pci_usb_installed = 1

## NVRAM

nvram_file = "nvram"

Type: sudo ppc to begin the installation process. When you get to the select a destination drive part of the installation, you need to create a partition and format it using the drive utility in the menu.

Once it finishes installing, reboot and make the following changes to the config file:

ppc_start_resolution = "1024x768x32" # or whatever you prefer

memory_size=0x20000000 #512 MiB, before I changed this it kept freezing and I would have to reboot

pci_ide0_master_installed = 1
pci_ide0_master_image = "/media/storage2/tmp/3gigharddisk.img"
#pci_ide0_master_type = "hd"
#pci_ide0_slave_installed = 1 # there is probably a better way to do this, but this is so it doesn't try to install each time
#pci_ide0_slave_image = "/media/storage2/Computer Software and Hardware/OSes/Mac OS X Install DVD/MacOSXInstallDVD.iso"
#pci_ide0_slave_type = "cdrom"

I still haven't yet gotten it connected to the internet, but as soon as I do I'll post the directions below....

Thinking about buying a Dell laptop

2008-11-06T14:27:00.001-05:00

Looking to buy a Dell laptop? Here are some recommendations:

Nowadays you want to get at least 2 gigabytes of RAM (I know it sound excessive, but if you are going to be using Vista, you will need it).
Avoid celeron processors (the company is not doing that great lately)

So I would probably avoid the low end Inspiron 1525 (the celeron one), the "Intel Pentium Dual Core" version definitely looks better. The XPS series is definitely the best, but only if you need all of the power it offers (but it comes at a price).

Regarding the operating system: I guess you might as well get it with Windows Vista (Dell does offer Linux Ubuntu machines, but they aren't really cheaper). That said, I've totally abandoned Windows for Linux, and don't have any desire or need to go back. Its finally at a place where it is very user friendly and just requires a slight alteration of thinking in certain respects. If you buy one with Vista, you can always try Linux and then go back if you want (but seriously, its at a place where there is no need to).

Here are the positives and negatives of using Linux, starting with the positives:

Much more secure: no need for antivirus, adware, or malware - there just aren't viruses out there targeting Linux machines.
Uses a lot less system resources: whereas you should probably have 3 gigs of RAM for Vista, 1 gig is sufficient for Linux (though I still recommend getting 2)
The software for it is totally and absolutely free, and has to always stay free because of the licensing agreements behind it. This means you literally NEVER have to buy software for it.
Its is backed by really big corporations like IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Novell, all of which pour tons of money into it.

Negatives:

You pretty much need a reliable internet connection to fully use its functionality
Some online services do not support the Linux platform yet, like Netflix (though I think it is in the works).
Not fully compatible with Microsoft (but its Microsoft's fault for not giving out the specifications for their software).
Not as compatible with mobile devices (but it depend on which mobile devices you have).
Some software on Linux just isn't as good as it is on Windows. In particular: audio/video editing, graphic editing, and lack of games.
Presently only about 1% of computer users use it, so you are more on your own (though there are lots of online resources)

My bet is that in a year or two, Linux machines will really have a strong foothold in the computer market. Dell started selling Linux machines a year ago, and Linux is now getting really big on smartphones. But all of this isn't really relevant to buying a computer, because I still recommend buying one with Vista.

Holy Shit... She thought what about Africa?

2008-11-06T00:21:00.001-05:00

Of course it is Fox News, the the reliability is somewhat in question:

Note

2008-11-05T01:33:00.001-05:00

My hat's off to you McCain, its been turbulent, but I still admire you.

To the Hannitys, Limbaughs, Savages, and Levins of the world -- fuck you.

Let the Issues be the Issues

2008-11-04T15:52:00.001-05:00

A Couple of Useful Repos for a Recently Updated Ubuntu Intrepid System

2008-11-04T12:54:00.001-05:00

The Virtualbox 2.0.4 Intrepid Repo is not listed on the download site, but it DOES exist:

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free

If you want to try OpenOffice 3.0 (which I haven't, though I'm tempted), here is the repo:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ubuntu intrepid main

If you want to try Amarok 2.0 beta 3 (I love the direction it is going!), then you can add the following repo:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/project-neon/ubuntu intrepid main

To use the latest version of Wine, add the following:

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt intrepid main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex"

Finally, if you want to try the beta of Songbird (0.7), you can find a link to it here.

Polling trends the past 3 presidential election cycles

2008-11-04T11:13:00.001-05:00

Strong reason to be hopeful that the polling trends tell us something useful about who's going to win:

Beer Review Index

2008-11-04T10:57:00.001-05:00

Here are the beers I've reviewed:

Other commentary on beer:

American Beers and Breweries

Blogging US Political Party Platforms

2008-11-04T10:17:00.001-05:00

I've been obsessed with politics lately. But I've never been interested just in the two major parties. I also love to look into 3rd, 4th, and sundry minor parties (like the Boston Tea party!). In this series, I will blog the following party platforms (if I can get around to it):

Major parties

Democratic
Republican

Major Third parties

Constitution
Green
Libertarian

Smaller parties

America First
American Independent
Boston Tea
Centrist
Communist
Independence
Labor
Modern Whig
Marijuana
Objectivist
Populist
Prohibition
Reform
Socialism and Liberation
Socialist
Socialist Equality
Socialist Workers
Veterans
Workers World

Come back to this page for links to each of them!

Take an inside look inside the religious right

2008-11-03T19:53:00.001-05:00

Bad politics. Worse theology. This is scary stuff. John Hagee is the guy who John McCain warmed up to for a while until some media scrutiny came to this relationship.

NOTE: I'm someone who loves to read the Bible and debate theology, but watching this drives me fucking crazy.

Here is the link: Vote the Bible, pt1

Window Politicing Turf War

2008-11-01T20:47:00.002-05:00

You know how when one person makes a political statement, someone else in the neighborhood feels like they have to make the opposing one? Well, over the past couple of weeks I've been amused at the exchange occurring in two adjacent neighborhood windows. Last night one of the neighbors (the one on the right) took it to a whole new level.

How much stupidity does it require to think this is helping your cause?

Republican Mayor Sanders Statement on Marriage Equality

2008-11-01T19:15:00.001-05:00

Wow. You can tell he really wrestled with the issue and listened the force of his convictions. He's right: embedded in the American way is a tendency towards equality and social justice. Slavery could not withstand this tendency, and neither will other institutionalized forms of discrimination. Certain freedoms were at stake and he could not bring himself to stand up against them. Bravo, mayor.

VOTE '08

2008-10-30T16:47:00.001-05:00

It turns a little odd in the middle.

watch Barack Obama's Primetime Special

2008-10-29T20:00:00.000-05:00

Electorial Map - You Decide!

2008-10-29T17:35:00.002-05:00

O'Reilly's Map

Pollster's Map

Their Words Come Back to Bite

2008-10-29T03:10:00.002-05:00

Well done, Olbermann.

What say you?

2008-10-27T16:38:00.001-05:00

"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need" - Acts 2:44-45

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" - Karl Marx

The type of conservatism I can appreciate and learn from

2008-10-22T23:51:00.001-05:00

Conservatism has become more and more divisive, ideological, and narrow over the last decade. At least it has in its popular expositions exhibited in present political discourse. Conservatives, if they want to save their movement, need to take it back out of the hold of the self-proclaimed conservative exponents and pundits like Limbaugh, Hannity, and - in fact - the entire right-wing radio talk-show circus that only appeal to non-intellectual gut reactions of listeners who are either easly swayed by incendiary remarks or want to affirm some loose and vague notions like small government and/or social values.

Both todays conservatives and liberals are part of grand western democratic liberal tradition that they have forgotten about and that they need to re-appropriate in their thinking. Conservatives in particular need to be careful not to claim that only they have the monopoly the views of America's founding fathers (which are a significant part of this tradition) and they need to recognize the legitimacy of a spectrum of views that grow directly both out of the western tradition generally, and out of the founding fathers in particular. Not only are the vast majority of conservatives (and liberals as well) too ill informed to know what this tradition is (for example, which of you have actually read Hobbes's Leviathan or Locke's political philosophy) or the specifics of the views of Jefferson, Adams, Madison, etc, but they can't even accurately express the views of their contemporary opponents (as happens, for example, when conservatives claim that Obama is a socialist).

Here are two clips where Andrew Sullivan helps us to re-appropriate this rich tradition:

Real Americans and Their Values

2008-10-21T20:02:00.001-05:00

Brilliant!

Colin Powell on the Reasons why he now is voting for Obama

2008-10-19T11:35:00.001-05:00

He's put the case as straightforwardly and eloquently as I've heard from anyone:

The McCain that I Love

2008-10-17T14:38:00.001-05:00

I'm sad McCain's campaign soured me on him a little bit. This is the charming, good natured man that I really admire.

The Reasons Christopher Buckley, the son of late Willliam F Buckley, no longer endorses McCain

2008-10-14T16:35:00.001-05:00

He writes:

A year ago, when everyone, including the man I’m about to endorse, was caterwauling to get out of Iraq on the next available flight, John McCain, practically alone, said no, no—bad move. Surge. It seemed a suicidal position to take, an act of political bravery of the kind you don’t see a whole lot of anymore.

But that was—sigh—then. John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

I have a hard time disagreeing with this sentiment.

How to discover the artist and name of music embedded in a video (in Linux)

2008-10-14T15:00:00.001-05:00

It has gotten a lot easier to discover the artist of a song you hear on the radio or in a movie nowadays. Most of the times its sufficient to take down some of the lyrics and do a google search on them. But sometimes it is not so simple - think about electronica or other music without lyrics. I have a couple of clips on my computer which include samples of music that I would love to know the artist of. How, then can I find out? Here is one way that I've found (if there are better ways, please let me know by leaving a comment).

First, you need to extract the audio from the video file. For avi, mpg, or flv files you can do either:

ffmpeg -i my_video_file.avi extracted_audio.mp3

or

mplayer -dumpaudio my_video_file.avi -dumpfile extracted_audio.mp3

You may need to extract the part that you want using Audacity. Now the question is: How do we go about identifying the extracted audio?

The method I used was to install MusicBrainz Picard. which can use audio fingerprinting to identify the track. Install it and open it up. Click "Add Files" and upload your file. Double click on it and remove any potentially confusing metadata (it will assume that the filename is the name of the track). Click scan. If it has a match, it will bring up the album in which the track is found. If you have an unmatched file, right click it and do scan again. Hopefully it will identify the track in the album that you were looking for.

Streaming WLS 890 (out of Chicago) in VLC

2008-10-13T13:43:00.001-05:00

This link seems to work in VLC, but I'm having problems getting it to work in mplayer and Amarok.

http://citadelcc-wls-am.wm.llnwd.net/citadelcc_WLS_AM

EDIT: The following works in Amarok:

mms://68.142.72.86:80/citadelcc_WLS_AM?MSWMExt=.asf

The Office, Season 5 Episode 2 "Business Ethics"

2008-10-10T21:39:00.001-05:00

Thanks McCain (a little late though)

2008-10-10T21:19:00.001-05:00

Hey kids, learn to rap with Mr. T

2008-10-09T11:47:00.001-05:00

Its painful to watch, yet I can't look away

How to Rap, according to Mr. T

Demonstrating the Inanity of Guilt by Association

2008-10-08T22:15:00.002-05:00

Hannity gets his ass handed to him. That is what happens when you base your entire shtick on a tactic which is a classical instance of poor reasoning. Bravo Gibbs! And Colmes, whose admirable instinct was to defend his co-host from the charge of antisemitism should have also driven home the point that it shows the inanity of this entire line of reasoning.

Another Perspective on the debate

2008-10-08T08:58:00.001-05:00

Neil Boortz does offer an interesting perspective on last night's debate. Check out the "Just So Frustrating" and "The Rich Should Pay Their Fair Share!" parts of today's post.

McCain said Obama "will increase taxes on 50% of small-business revenue."

2008-10-08T08:48:00.001-05:00

Factchecking, otherwise known as due-diligence, is very important in evaluating the credibility of the candidates. Are one or both of the candidates willing to state straight-out falsehoods in order to win some cheap votes?

For example, McCain has consistently misrepresented Obama as someone who wants to raise taxes across the board, esp. on the middle class. The fantasitic site FactCheck.org has this to say about such a claim:

It's a pretty standard Republican theme: "Democrat X favors higher taxes and wasteful spending." But the McCain-Palin campaign has repeatedly pushed this line far beyond what the facts will support. Among the whoppers: that Sen. Barack Obama has voted to raise taxes on families earning as little as $32,000 per year, that Obama wants to tax your electricity and your heating oil, that he has voted for "higher" taxes 94 times, and that he will raise taxes for 23 million small-business owners. Each of these claims is false. ... As for Obama's actual plan: The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says that 81.3 percent of all American workers and families would see a tax cut.

Last night he said that Obama's plan, "will increase taxes on 50% of small-business revenue." This is flat out blatently false (and not even close to the actual truth):

...according to the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a joint effort by two Washington think tanks, less than 3% of small businesses pay taxes in the top two brackets and could therefore see higher taxes. And for most of those small businesses, business revenue represents less than half of their income.

Other whoppers of 2008 can be found here.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

2008-10-05T18:47:00.001-05:00

Two sites you should check out for extensive coverage on the truths, half-truths, and outright lies that are circulating about the presidential candidates are Politifact and FactCheck. A list of the most egregious lies can be found here. These include:

OJ Simpson Guilty on All Charges

2008-10-05T18:14:00.001-05:00

It is 13 years to this day that he was acquitted of murder. No doubt he is sure to appeal.

SNL Takes on the VP Debate

2008-10-05T13:14:00.000-05:00

Factchecking Palin's claim that Obama was 'palling around with terrorists"

2008-10-05T13:09:00.001-05:00

Spoiler: False.

Beer Review #7 (Shit Beer Edition): Busch Light

2008-10-04T21:40:00.003-05:00

Appearance - Light yellow. Looks like ginger-ale with extra carbonation and fizz.

Smell - Corn, more corn, and sweet metal.

Taste - Corn and water, with the added flavor of the can (mmm... can). Nothing too offensive, but very boring and bland. Quintessential shit beer (they should win a prize for this).

Mouthfeel - Beer flavored seltzer water.

Drinkability - Why? I mean seriously. At least upgrade to Natural Light. Could be good for cooking (I think that's what I'm going to do with the rest).

F/1

Beer Review #6 - Rare Vos (Brewery Ommegang)

2008-10-04T16:22:00.001-05:00

Appearance - Pours a light hazy amber with a large frothy white head that holds fairly well and leaves only a slight lacing. Lots of carbonation.

Smell - A somewhat sweet aroma, with apple notes and a little cirtrus hops.
.
Taste - A little sweet/malty, a little spicy, and ends on a sour note, though not as flavorful as the smell might portend. The most prominent flavor is that of sour apple.

Mouthfeel - Medium-bodied. Smooth, crisp, and even somewhat creamy. A little excessive on the carbonation.

Drinkability - Although somewhat muted on flavor, it's an easy and drinkable beer. I probably wouldn't drink more than two in a row, though, because the sourness gets to me

B+/7

Presidential Elections and the Electorial College going all the way back to George Washington

2008-10-04T15:31:00.002-05:00

A fascinating trek through history (also don't forget to look at the election facts at the bottom).

American Beers and Breweries (and a little bit of autobiography)

2008-10-04T14:44:00.001-05:00

It is only been in the past year and a half that I have come to realize that America does have some great breweries and produces some fantastic beers. Before this, I bought into the meme that almost all American beer is shit. And the fact is that like 50% of American beer sales (by vol) is from the Anheuser-Busch company alone (though is it still an American company?) - which absolutely does produce LOTS of shit: Budweiser and its derivatives (drinkable, but not really anything good about it), Michelob, Rolling Rock, Natural Light (bad beer flavored water), and Busch varieties (we're getting into the real shit).

Unfortunately, this is what a lot of Americans like. Maybe they've bought into the advertising campaign, maybe they just haven't experienced great beer, maybe they only drink beer to get drunk, or maybe they've dulled their taste-buds to the waterry sorta-beer-flavored macro varieties. You know that someone hasn't really learned to appreciate good beer when they think that Guiness (which I actually do love), Heineken, Newcastle, or Amber Bock are high-end beers (yes, I've actually had someone tell me that Amber Bock is high-end).

Nonetheless, the above is mainly what I drank until about the beginning of 2007. Then I fell in with the right crowd of people and started drinking some really good beer. I fell hard and fast for a good IPA (which is still my favorite type of beer), then I worked my way out to various types of stouts and decent APAs. I also started paying more attention to the breweries of some of my favorite beers. Below, which is by no means complete, I've listed my favorite American breweries along with some of my favorite beers from those breweries. A more complet list of great American breweries can be found here on Beeradvocate.

Stone Brewing Co. (Escondido, CA) - My favorite! For my money, consistently the best of the type of brews I like the most. Pick anything up from them!

Ruination IPA (DIPA) - One of my favorites. Takes Stone IPA to the next level.
Stone IPA (IPA) - A solid IPA. If you want a good introduction to IPAs, start here.
Arrogant Bastard Ale (American Strong Ale) - Check out my review here.

Rogue Ales (Ashland, Oregon) - Excellent brewer. I've yet to try a beer I didn't like from them (though I still have a lot to go).

Shakespeare Stout (Stout) - Smooth, dark, and balanced. I've reviewed it here.
Dead Guy Ale (Maibock) - Sweet and flavorful, emphasizing malt and citrus flavor.

Three Floyds Brewing LLC (Hammond, Indiana) - They have some great brews, but they also have some real doozies (at least for my tastes). Choose carefully.

Alpha King (APA) - Light amber, with a delicious citrus and hops flavor.
Gumballhead (Wheat Ale) - Citrusy (mainly orange) complemented with hops. One of my favorite wheat ales.

Brewery Ommegang (Cooperstown, NY)

Ommegang Abbey Ale (Dubbel)
Hennepin Farmhouse Saison (Saison)
Rare Vos Amber Ale (Belgian Dark Ale)

Bells Brewery, Inc. (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

Hopslam (DIPA) - VERY hoppy, and high alcohol concentration. One of my favorites for sure!
Two Hearted Ale (IPA)
Oberon (Wheat Ale) - Not the best brew in the world, but considerably better than most american beer. In the same class as Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

And lets not forget...

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (APA) - I can afford to drink this often, so I do. A great session beer. I've reviewed it here.

Sneak Peak of Ryan Adam's new Abum "Cardinology"

2008-10-04T14:15:00.001-05:00

Cardinology is due out Oct 29. If you want a sneak peak of what it will sound like, then there is a compilation of live versions of the songs here. Check it out!

First impressions: I agree with one of the commentators that it might be too jam bandy (as it was in a concert I saw him in about a year ago) and a bit more mellow than I might prefer. But even so I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Technorati Tags: music, ryan.adams

Why I Like Neil Boortz

2008-10-02T12:23:00.001-05:00

Even though he does parody other radio talk show hosts in certain respects (e.g., silly criticisms of Obama), he does have an independent streak in the way he looks at things. (Also, he is not boring, repetitive, or a propagantist hack for the right a la Hannity). I may not agree with what he says in today's Nealz Nuze, but at least it is a voice of fresh air in the conservative dominated radio talk shows:

JUST KEEP THE HATE MAIL COMING! (BY THE WAY, I'M NOT A REPUBLICAN)
Subject: Immaturity of American Voter
Name: Corbett
It's always some excuse with you Republicans. You present us with John McCain as your candidate & then call the American voters immature because they want nothing to do with the author of McCain-Feingold, the man who voted against tax cuts & the man who sabotaged the nomination of conservative judges.
When will you people grow up? Grown up people take responsibility for their mistakes. They don't blame others and they don't call people names for disagreeing with them.
You people nominated a sure loser. You knew he was a loser when you nominated him. Accept the responsibility for your actions & accept the inevitable defeat gracefully.

And be prepared to leave the country because Obama is going to destroy what little bit GWB has left of our liberty.

Thanks for not toeing the line (the more independent you are the better)!

How to Create a Modified, Updated Windows XP Installation Disk - A Quick Guide to Some Resources

2008-10-02T08:03:00.001-05:00

Producing a shinny new updated Windows XP disk is easy if you have (or at least know about) the right tools. Assuming you have a XP service pack 2 installation cd (or iso), you can do any of the following if you like:

slipstream sp3 into it
incorporate hotfikes
incorporate, say, SATA drivers - if you want to be able to install in on many (if not most) new computers.
incorporate programs like: Firefox, VLC, WP11, IE7, etc.

If you want to integrate Windows Media Player 11, do this before following the instructions below. If you want to integrate drivers from DriverPacks, again, do this before using nLite.

First, make sure you have Net Framework 2.0 installed, and then get a copy of nLite and install it. Then copy the entire content of your WinXP CD in some local folder (e.g., C:\XP). Note: nLite will do copy it for you if you point it to the CD.

If you want to slipstream sp3 into the disk, download it from here.

Get all the programs you want to include in your new XP disc. You can find a ton of them at winAddons. If the program you are interested in is not here, then you can make your own using these instructions (the newest version of this program can be found here).

Although I haven't tested this, you can use this program to download hotfixes.

Download any drivers you want to slipstream (a more generic approach will be discussed below using the drivers at DriverPacks).

Alright, now you should have everything. (Again, if you want to slipstream WMP11, do this before using nLite).
Start nLite, and follow the directions. Some good tutorials on using nLite can be found here and here. I would recommend looking at all the options and getting a good sense of the program. Some more advanced resources about what you can, should, and should not do can be found here, here, and here. Also, don't forget about the MSFN forums (invaluable).

Below I'll discuss two not so obvious things you may be interested in doing when modifying the XP disk: including a large number of SATA drivers (so XP can support newer hardware) and include new files or portable applications on your new XP disk.

SATA DRIVERS

A common reason for slipstreaming XP is to include drivers that support SATA drives. If you try to install XP on your machine, but get the following error message, then this is your problem:

If you want to use nLite to slipstream the necessary drivers, you need to first download them (what they are depends on your hardware), extract them, browse to them in nLite, and select one or more .inf files to integrate.

Suppose you want to install XP on multiple computers with different harddrives? You could obviously download all the requisite drivers and follow the above instructions, but a more general approach would be to to download the SATA drivers from DriverPacks. In particular, you need DriverPacks BASE and DriverPack MassStorage. The BASE package includes a nice intuitive gui to guide you through the process.

INCLUDING ADDITIONAL FILES OR PORTABLE APPS

Portable applications are great. You can carry them around with you on a USB stick, or in the present case, you can include them on a XP installation disk if you know how. The most professionally wrapped portable apps are found here. I wanted to have the most functionality on my installation disk, so I wanted to include the Suite Standard. To do this, or to include any other files you want on your installation disk, you need to understand the $OEM$ options. An important guide for understanding this is here.

The short tutorial is that you create the $OEM$ folder parallel to the i386 folder. I wanted the Suite to be put in the "Programing Files" folder, so inside the $OEM$ folder, I created the $Progs folder and copied the extracted version of the Suite to this directory. You can use this method to copy any files or folders to the installation disk.

A more advanced tutorial can be found here.

First Impressions of Intrepid Ibex

2008-10-01T10:01:00.002-05:00

When Hardy first came out, I was somewhat disappointed. I was experiencing a large number of bugs and unusual system instability. I even listed some of my main complaints here and here.

I've continued to use Hardy, but I've had my eye on the next version of Ubuntu, code-named "Intrepid Ibex", which comes out at the end of the month (October). Rather than wait until it is entirely ready, two nights ago I decided to go ahead and update my entire system to Intrepid and file bug reports when needed.

(Although it is not recommended on production machines, the process of updating to the next version is really easy. It can be done running the following command: sudo update-manager -d)

So far, I've been pleased with my experience. There is nothing revolutionary about Intrepid, but it does feel a lot more stable than Hardy (ironically, even in its present alpha stage). In all honesty, it is the experience I was hoping for with Hardy. Better late than never, I guess.

For one, the whole distro seems to function better as a integrated whole. In particular I had lots of problems with PulseAudio in Hardy: crashing, applications not being properly configured to work with it, or worse yet, applications not even supporting it. Many of these problems seemed to have been fixed, although I'm still pissed with Audacity lack of PulseAudio support (come on Audacity developers - get with it already!).

One of my major complaints with Hardy was the continued instability of Flash on Firefox. I could hardly watch one or two videos on YouTube or CNN without my entire browser crashing. And its been 5 months, and it still hasn't been fixed in Hardy! But so far my experience with Intrepid has been a lot better - I've been browsing heavily for the past day and a half - watching lots of Flash-based video - and Firefox has yet to crash once. Bravo for fixing this! (Shouldn't you backport this fix to Hardy? Seriously.)

Regarding new features - there don't seem to be a great deal. They largely consist of the normal version updates on the applications included in Intrepid. For example the new version of Gnome is out, which offers tabbing in Nautilus among other things. Here are some other application updates I really like: VLC, Network Manager, and of course a newer Linux kernel. Nothing new really jumps out at me.

As of the version that I'm now testing, the Ubuntu developers have yet to finalize the artwork and theming to be included with Intrepid. They have updated the background to a darker grayish brown (which is ok, but nothing special) and they do include a new dark theme that I haven't really been able to get used to. Again, very incrimental.

There are some things that I was hoping would make it into this release but I'm doubtful will. OpenOffice 3 for one (though release candidate 3 just came out, so it might be). It has a bunch of new features that would make a nice addition to my Ubuntu experience, but even so I hope they don't decide to go with it anyway if it's not stable, like they did with Firefox last time.

I was expecting for more of a facelift of Ubuntu, with the addition of lots of good art and theming (or at least the ability to get themes easier). That said, I remain hopeful that more will make it in this release than is presently included.

I would also like major improvements to come to the Evolution client one of these days (though this is mainly work to be done for Gnome developers). In particular, I would like to see:

Two way syncronization with Google Calander and Contacts
Tab support
Better integration with other programs (e.g., Alarm Clocks support of birthdays should be able to access the ones in my contacts)
A list of other issues I've already mentioned here.

Overall, though, Intepid is a nice improvement over Hardy. In fact, my hopes for the Hardy release are now being satisfied by Intrepid. Kudos to all the Ubuntu developers!

Technorati Tags: ubuntu

Beer Reviews #5 - Arrogant Bastard Ale

2008-09-28T21:32:00.002-05:00

Appearance - A deep dark cloudy amber with soft cascading bubbles that form a large frothy white head that dissipates slowly, leaving a beautiful lacing around the glass.

Smell - A sweet piney scent (with the sweet predominating) and a touch of citrus.

Taste - Coats with mouth with a great balance of malt and hops wrapped up with an underlying caramel base.

Mouthfeel - Thick, smooth, and creamy, with a gentle carbonation. Fantastic.

Drinkability - I want to drink more, but I'm hesitant to do so when I need to wake up early. My mouth wants more for sure. Maybe one more wouldn't hurt...

A/9

Where is dogmatism most prominent?

2008-09-26T23:44:00.001-05:00

Politics, Religion, Science

These also happen to be the three most prominent items in the present culture wars. Historically, I wonder which of these three has lead to more deaths generally.

The Office - Season 5 Episode 1 "Weight Loss"

2008-09-26T08:31:00.001-05:00

Yay for the next season of The Office!

Stewart and Colbert - An example of their brilliant mockery of the comically dumb media

2008-09-26T07:43:00.001-05:00

Bravo fellas, bravo!

Hulu.com does it right

2008-09-25T21:40:00.001-05:00

I've been watching a lot of hulu.com video's lately. Ok, so they are embedded by with ads. Not a problem. They do everything else right: high quality streaming video feed, they allow embedding, there is lots of good content, it works on multiple platforms (unlike siverlight), and the ads are not that intrusive. And they are pretty damn secure too - I've been trying to figure out if there is any way to download them, and I've yet to figure it out. Good job so far!

The Office - Season 4 Episode 14 "Goodbye Toby"

2008-09-25T21:19:00.001-05:00

If you haven't seen The Office (the american version), then it is definitely worth checking out. Season 5 started today - I'll embed the video once I find it. For now, here is the last episode of season 4.

Beer Review #4 - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

2008-09-25T18:38:00.002-05:00

Appearance - Pours a light, clear amber with a medium white head that retains well and leave a nice lacing around my glass

Smell - A citrus smell, with underlying floral and pine notes.

Taste - Citrus (mainly grapefruit) and hops upfront. The bitterness from the hops is prominent. The taste lingers in the mouth.

Mouthfeel - A nicely carbonated, balanced feel. Crisp, clean, bitter, giving way to soft creaminess.

Drinkability - Very tasty. One of my favorite pale ales (a staple of mine). Strongly recommended!

A-/8

McCain is Burning Bridges He Should Not Burn

2008-09-25T01:00:00.003-05:00

This makes me somewhat sad. Its obvious that Letterman has great respect for John McCain, so its a shame that McCain ditched Letterman for a different interview. In response Letterman gives him a proper lashing. And Letterman's makes a great point as well: McCain should not suspend his campaign - he should have let Palin take the reigns of the campaign in his stead. (I mean, if she can't do that, how can we expect her to be ready to lead the country. The answer is obvious - she can't.) Sad. I still respect McCain, but I'm having a hard time trusting his judgment as of late.

David Letterman Reacts to John McCain Suspending Campaign

My favorite albums of the first decade of the 21st century

2008-09-23T21:16:00.001-05:00

First, by year (my top 5 for each year):

2000

Kid A - Radiohead
Transcendental Blues - Steve Earle
Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams
American III: Solitary Man - Johnny Cash
Since I Left You - Avalanches

2001

Gold - Ryan Adams
Time (The Revelator) - Gillian Welch
The Swimming Hour - Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire
At Dawn - My Morning Jacket
Burnside on Burnside - R.L. Burnside

2002

Demolition - Ryan Adams
The Creek Drank the Cradle - Iron and Wine
Jerusalem - Steve Earle
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
Control - Pedro the Lion

2003

Hail to the Thief - Radiohead
Master and Everyone - Bonnie Prince Billy
Blackberry Belle - The Twilight Singers
Terroir Blues - Jay Farrar
Give Up - The Postal Service

2004

Real Gone - Tom Waits
Set Yourself on Fire - Stars
Good News for People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse
More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley
Seven Swans - Sufjan Stevens

2005

Illinois - Sufjan Stevens
Jacksonville City Nights - Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I'm Wide Awaye, It's Morning - Bright Eyes
Alligator - The National

2006

The Dust of Retreat - Margot and the Nuclear So and So's
Straight to Hell - Hank Williams III
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Neko Case
Electric President - Electric President
The Crane Wife - Decemberists

2007

The Shepard's Dog - Iron and Wine
In Rainbows - Radiohead
The Stage Names - Okkervil River
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank - Modest Mouse
Person Pitch - Panda Bear

2008

The Evening Descends - Evangelicals
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
The Stand Ins - Okkervil River

Alright, now my top 10 of the decade:

Kid A - Radiohead
Illinois - Sufjan Stevens
Demolition - Ryan Adams
The Shepard's Dog - Iron and Wine
Transcendental Blues - Steve Earle
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Creek Drank the Cradle - Iron and Wine
I'm Wide Awake Its Morning - Bright Eyes
Give Up - The Postal Service
Jacksonville City Nights - Ryan Adams

Bremner, Bird, and Fortune - On the economy

2008-09-22T16:38:00.002-05:00

I just found this show. I'd never heard of it before, but it is both funny and insightful (and somewhat prophetic). Here are some clips:

Ubuntu Intrepid Alpha 6 out!

2008-09-18T21:37:00.001-05:00

Get it here.

The Original Mac vs. Windows Ad

2008-09-16T01:54:00.002-05:00

Classic, original Mac vs Windows TV Ad

Steve Ballmer selling Windows 1.0 back in the day

2008-09-16T01:52:00.002-05:00

A word of warning, this ad is very annoying (he's trying to hype something that really sucked). It reminds me of the movie UHF. Ripe for parody and laughs.

Windows 1.0 ad

Beer Review #3 (Shit Beer Edition): Coors Light

2008-09-15T22:45:00.005-05:00

Some beers don't really deserve a review. Coors Light is one of them. But because I'm really poor until I get my next paycheck and I'm procrastinating right now, here's a review nonetheless. Yes, I'm even going to go through the standard rundown:

Appearance - Pours a crisp, golden color, with big bubbles that form a quick white head that disappears immediately. Looks more like a 7-up than a beer.

Smell - A little sweet, a little malt, a little chemical. The smell of cheep beer - reminds me of college.

Taste - Carbonation, water, and a touch of flavor. Mainly water. Maybe a hint of corn or grain. Drink it while it is cold, because when it warms it does aquire more of a taste, but not in a good way.

Mouthfeel - Not even sure how to address this one. Light. Watery. Gets flat fast.

Drinkability - As long as it is cold and you swallow it down quickly, its drinkable. Best after mowing the lawn (even recommended!), but other than that not much going for it. In light doses it can take the edge off. In heavy doses, its best used for shotgunning a beer or beer pong. Also surprisingly helpful when you need "hair of the dog".

D/3

Dropbox Installation on Ubuntu

2008-09-15T15:13:00.001-05:00

A great tutorial can be found here. From the article:

In case you are wondering, Dropbox is an online storage site that allows you to back up and sync your files right from your desktop. It comes with a desktop application that you can install in your OS and backing up files is just a simple drag and drop to the Dropbox folder in your hard drive. Any files added/removed from the folder will be automatically sync with the online server as long as you are connected to the Internet.

The Science Equivalent of Religious Nutters

2008-09-15T12:18:00.001-05:00

Apparently Michael Reiss, the first ever director of education at the prestigious Royal Society, has caused an uproar with his comments about creationism and science classes. And what did he say?

The complaints of his critics make it sound like he wants creationism taught in science class. Just listen:

Richard Roberts: "I think it is outrageous that this man is suggesting that creationism should be discussed in a science classroom. It is an incredible idea and I am drafting a letter to other Nobel laureates - which would be sent to the Royal Society - to ask that Reiss be made to stand down."

Rowan Hooper: "to the dismay of many scientists in the UK, the director of education for the Royal Society, Michael Reiss, has called for creationism to be taught in biology classes in the UK."

The only problem - these claims are false. False and easily disproven. These critics seem to have binary lenses on: viewing anyone who talks about this issue as either for creationism being taught in science class or against it. And then they take sides and try - using whatever positions they have - to bash or ban anyone that isn't totally on board with them. It reminds me of someone who gets elected head of the PTA so they can ban books they disagree with from the local library.

So what did Reiss actually claim. From this audio interview he says:

“Creationism is not science, and it should not be given equal time in science lessons, and it shouldn't be presented by science teachers as a scientifically valid alternative. But as a teacher, I'm comfortable when dealing in science lessons with what students bring to the lesson even if it isn't good science. So I would want to acknowledge without in any way ridiculing the student.... I want to acknowledge that for the student that is how they understand the world, and I can respect them for that, but I want to make it very clear that's not the way the overwhelming majority of scientists understand the world, and we have very good evidence-based reasons as to why scientists understand the world they do, and then nothing would delight me more than to get into the scientific evidence for evolution or the history of the universe.”

As can easily be seen by anyone without blinders on, Reiss is making a pedagogical point: To really teach students in science class, you have to address their concerns without alientating them. Woh. Radical. He should be fired.

His point isn't to teach creationism in science classes, its to teach creationists in science classes. Its to teach the widening percentage of creationists that are already in the classrom the rules of evidence-based reasoning that is the halmark of science, and why this reasoning supports the theory of evolution.

You can read one of the more sane blog posts on the issue here. And if you really can't get enough, checkout the Slashdot post here.

Tina Fey As Sarah Palin On SNL (VIDEO)

2008-09-14T01:11:00.001-05:00

Spot on. Brilliant!

Hillary Clinton Sarah Palin Press Conference

A more stable link is found here, but it starts with an ad:

How to get Live Video from Fox News on Ubuntu

2008-09-12T15:25:00.001-05:00

Lately a bunch of sites have been moving from Flash to either Silverlight or Adobe AIR for their video feeds. Unfortunately, neither are officially supported yet on the Linux platform in general, or on Ubuntu in particular (that said, there is a lot of hard work being done to change this: check out mono and Adobe AIR for Linux).

Its easy to feel left behind. For example, I wanted to watch the live feed from foxnews.com on the huricane Ike. Unfortunately, it requires Adobe AIR. What could I do? I'm not one to feel sorry for myself, so I figured I'd do some hacking and tinkering around and see if I could get it to work anyway. And I did! Here is what you need to do:

First, download the alpha of Adobe AIR for Linux here.
Using the command line navigate to the download, and type: chmod 755 adobeair_linux_*.bin
Type: ./adobeair_linux_*.bin [this will execute gksu automatically]
Follow the directions. Once it is installed: close and restart Firefox [I'm not sure this step is necessary, but its not going to hurt]
To install the Fox News Live Adobe AIR application, go to http://www.foxnews.com/video2/FoxNewsLive.air
It should ask you if it can open it with Adobe AIR. Say yes. Follow the directions and it should work!

By default, it installs it in /opt/FOX News Live/. If you want to re-start the application, navigate to this directory and run the following command: ./FOX\ News\ Live

You can delete the applications in Synamptic Package Manager

To uninstall Adobe AIR: dpkg -r adobeair-enu

Although it seems somewhat choppy, it works. Hope this helps somebody!

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, firefox, adobe.air

Comments on Sarah Palin Interview

2008-09-12T11:04:00.000-05:00

She didn't do a horrible job, but definitely didn't hit the ball out of the park. The partisan right is on the defensive on this one, blaming Charlie Gibson and the "leftist" media for the weak performance. The partisan left, on the other hand, is going to view this interview as clear indication that she doesn't know what she's talking about (as if a good performance would have changed their minds).

One of the main problems, though, was the fact that the McCain campaign shielded her from the media for two weeks, which indicates that she's not ready for the office on day one. So its no surprise that Gibson made this the focus of his interview. Her fairly canned responses didn't indicate to me that she has thought in an independent fashion about many of these questions.

Where all the questions fair? Not really. The one about the "Bush Doctrine" seemed to me to be problematic, for example. There are two ways to look at it:

It could be seen as a "gotcha" question - where Gibson poses it to embarrass Palin, implicature being: "What, you don't know what the Bush Doctrine is?" As if we all do or should. I keep up a fair bit with politics, and I have admittedly heard the phrase before, but when he posed the question I wasn't sure what he was referring to. I would also be caught off-guard if someone asked me about the "Powell Doctrine" or the "Clinton Doctrine" as well.
It could also be seen as a "insider-baseball" question. This is how I read it. But obviously on this interpretation it is not exactly fair - because, as everyone already knows, SHE IS NOT A WASHINGTON INSIDER. It takes a while to get accustomed to any insider language game.

Either way, there is a lot of catching up for her to do.

The only other question that really interested me was the one about whether or not she had any doubts or self-doubts about her ability to handle the responsibilities of the vice-presidency. Her response was, basically, that she had "no doubts". Now maybe from a campaign and leadership perspective, this was the answer she should have given. I don't know, but that doesn't really interest me (though it is certainly relevant). What I care about more a matter of honesty, and self-honesty in particular. Anyone who doesn't have doubts doesn't know what they are in for. Someone without doubts has either got to have huge blinders or a very simple view of the world. It is, as Gibson rightly noted, a matter of "hubris". She ought to have had doubts about this tiny little inteview, let alone... THE VICE-PRESIDENCY.

Sarah Palin ABC Interview Charles Gibson

Beer Review #2: Rogue Shakespeare Stout

2008-09-12T00:51:00.001-05:00

This one is one of my favorite stouts.

Appearance - Dark and smooth. The medium head is infused with brown, and laces the glass nicely.

Smell - Hints of chocolate and a little bit of coffee. A touch of roasted malts.

Taste - Starts with a malty taste, espresso middle, and then ends on a sweet chocolaty note. Once its down, it leaves a hoppy bitterness, making my mouth want the next sip. Complex, delicious.

Mouthfeel - VERY well balanced, somewhat creamy. My mouth sooo approves.

Drinkability - I want to drink this slowly, enjoying each mouthful. Not too heavy.

A+/10

McCain Campaign ad on Obama on Sex Education to Kindergartners

2008-09-11T12:50:00.001-05:00

This ad is a new low for the McCain campaign - it is pure slime. Unforgivably so. This is Rovean politics at its worst. Remember your out-of-wedlock black baby, McCain? Yeah, this shit is in the same league. It's been thoroughly debunked here. I hope Carville is right (the second video) and that McCain didn't really know about it. I still believe that McCain is an honorable, decent person. I hope he repudiates it and fires those who put his name on this despicable ad.

Education

Carville: McCain Too Honorable to Have Approved Sleazy Ad

Obama: ENOUGH!

2008-09-10T19:48:00.002-05:00

"I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics. Enough is enough!" - Obama

Couldn't agree more, the phony outrage pisses me off.

Sarah Palin and the Hypocrisy of Political Hacks

2008-09-08T22:18:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite recent Daily Show clips:

Barack Obama on O'Reilly - Part 2

2008-09-08T22:05:00.001-05:00

Part 1 can be found here.

Barack Obama v. Bill O'Reilly - Part 2 of 5 - Sept 8 2008

Introducing Ubuntu 9.04: Jaunty Jackalope

2008-09-08T21:48:00.001-05:00

Mark Shuttleworth just sent out an message giving the broad sketches of his vision for the iteration of Ubuntu after Intrepid Ibex, code named "Jaunty Jackalope". One thing I love about the way that Ubuntu code names work is that they are meant to reveal something about the focus of that development cycle, and ultimately the distribution itself. In the message Shuttleworth reveals three primary goals for Jaunty, which he decribes as follows:

"The Jackalope is known for being so fast that it's extremely hard to catch, and breeds only when lightning flashes. Let's see if we can make booting or resuming Ubuntu blindingly quick."
"Another goal is the the blurring of web services and desktop applications. "Is it a deer? Is it a bunny? Or is it a weblication - a desktop application that seamlessly integrates the web!""
"Those bizarre-but-fearsome antlers might well remind one of the intricate pattern of collaboration between developers in a distributed version control system. So it's fitting that Jaunty will see us move all of Ubuntu into Bazaar. For the first time, any developer will be able to branch any Ubuntu package with a single bzr command, publish their changes, and perhaps even publish builds of that package in their own Package Archive."

This weeks noteworthy software releases

2008-09-08T20:28:00.001-05:00

Not a bad week!

Tons of user agent information you can import into User Agent Switcher Firefox addon

2008-09-08T20:17:00.001-05:00

If you use Firefox, but occasionally need to pretend your browser is IE, Safari, or even the Iphone browser, you can using User Agent Switcher and the user-agents provided here by Brent Strange (thanks!). The import file includes the following spoofs:

Internet Explorer
MSIE 8 (Win Vista)
MSIE 8 (Win XP)
MSIE 7 (Win Vista)
MSIE 7 (Win XP)
MSIE 7 (Win Storage Server)
MSIE 6 (Win XP)
MSIE 5.5 (Win 2000)
MSIE 5.5 (Win ME)
MSIE 5.0 (Win 95)
MSIE 4.01 (Win 95)
MSIE 4.0 (Win NT)

FireFox
FireFox 2.0.12 (Win Vista)
FireFox 2.0 (Win XP)
FireFox 1.5.0.6 (Fedora Core 5/Linux)
FireFox 1.5.0.4 (Debian Linux)
FireFox 1.5.0.3 (Mac OSX)
FireFox 1.5.0.1 (Win Vista)
FireFox 1.5 (Win XP)
FireFox 1.4 (Win XP)
FireFox 1.0.7 (Win XP)
FireFox 1.0.6 (Win XP)
FireFox 1.0.5 (SlackWare/Linux)
FireFox 1.0.4 (FreeBSD)
FireFox 1.0 (Win XP)
FireFox 0.9.3 (Win XP)

Opera
Opera 9.1 (Win XP)
Opera 8.0 (Win 2000)
Opera 7.6 (Server 2003)
Opera 7.51 (Win XP)
Opera 7.5 (Win XP)
Opera 7.5 (Win ME)
Opera 4
Opera 3
Opera 2
Opera 1

Netscape
Netscape 8.1(Win XP)
Netscape 8.0.1 (Win XP)
Netscape 7.2 (Win 2000)
Netscape 7.1 (Win 98)
Netscape 4.8 (Win XP)
Netscape 4.76 (Win 98)
Netscape 4.5 (Win 98)
Netscape 4.05 (Win 95)
Netscape 3.01 gold (Win 95)
Netscape 2.02 (Win 95)

Safari
Safari 3.0 (v521)
Safari 2.0 (v418.9.1)
Safari 2.0 (v412)
Safari 2.0 (v401)
Safari 1.3 (v162)
Safari 1.3 (v158)
Safari 1.3 (v146)
Safari 1.2(v125.8; OSX 10.3.4)
Safari 1.1 (v100.1; OSX 10.3.2)
Safari 1.0 (v85)
Safari 1.0 (v74 beta 2)
Safari 1.0 (v73 beta 2)
Safari 1.0 (v64 beta)
Safari 1.0 (v51 update 1.0 beta)
Safari 1.0(v48 public beta)

AOL
AOL 9.0/MSIE 6.0 (Win XP)
AOL 8.0/MSIE 6.0 (Win XP)
AOL 7.0/MSIE 5.5 (Win 98)
AOL 6.0/MSIE 5.5 (Win 98)
AOL 5.0/MSIE 5.0 (Win 98)
AOL 5.0 (OS X)
AOL 5.0 (Mac PPC)
AOL 4.0/MSIE 3.02 (Win 95)
AOL 4.0/MSIE 4.01 (Win 95)
AOL 4.0 (Mac PPC)
AOL 4.0 (Mac 68k)
AOL 4.0/MSIE 3.0(Win 3.1)
AOL 3.0/MSIE 3.02 (Win 95)
AOL 3.0/MSIE 4.01 (Win 95)

Mozilla
Mozilla 1.7.8 (Linux)

Spiders/Bots
Googlebot 2.1 (New version)
Msnbot 1.0
Msnbot 1.0 Beta (v0.11)
Yahoo Slurp
Ask Jeeves/Teoma

RSS Readers
NewsGator 2.5 (Win XP)
Feed Demon 1.6 (Win XP)
Bloglines 2.1
SharpReader 0.9.6.0 (Win XP)

WAP Devices
Nokia 6630
Nokia 6100
BlackBerry 8703
iPhone (3.0 Mobile)

Toolbars
Google Toolbar 4.0
Hotbar 4.4.2
AskBar 3.0

Other
iTunes 4.2 (OS X 10.2)
iTunes 4.7 (OS X 10.2)
iTunes 7.1.1 (Mac PPC)
Zune 2.0
Facebook

Live-Blogging McCain

2008-09-04T21:28:00.001-05:00

Overall, I was extremely annoyed by the crowd, but the speech was not that bad. The fact that Obama and McCain are the two presidential candidates attests to the fact that the conservative movement is languishing.

10:57 - His war story. Its worth hearing.

10:55 - He is trying to be post-partisian. It is falling flat on the crowd, but his record here is solid. This is a slap on the face of partisan hacks. This is why I've always liked McCain.

10:53 - A lot of what he says is an implicit criticism of the Bush administration. Good.

10:50 - Foreign policy segment. Nothing concrete, but his emphasis on working with other countries is a breath of fresh air. And his blunt claim that war is evil is very much needed. Reminds me of Obama's claim in Saddleback that sometimes much evil is done in the name of good.

10:47 - Constantly misrepresenting Obama's views, esp. on energy. Besides the Republican base's short-sighted emphasis on "drill here, drill now" I don't think McCain and Obama's positions are that different in terms of taking a multi-pronged approach to the issue.

10:45 - His ideas on education are worth pursuing. This is a big issue for me, and I side more with McCain here.

10:42 - His claims about Obama's tax plans are easily debunked. Look here.

10:38 - Republican talking points, not much of substance here.

10:36 - Not a visionary speech so far. Mainly focused on past record and anecdotes. It would be better to focus more on the future.

10:33 - McCain does have the record he speaks of. This in fact is what makes conservatives nervous.

10:30 - Right now a bit heavy on the cliches.

10:26 - starting a couple of min. late. Did see his respectful stance towards Obama. It is easy to grow bitter, but McCain does not seem to be a bitter man.

Beer Review #1 - Pomme Lambic (Lindermans)

2008-09-04T19:49:00.001-05:00

Appearance - This beer is a translucent mix of orange, yellow, and brown. Reminds me of frothy unfiltered apple juice. Lots of sediment.

Smell - Heavy sour apple smell. Pungent, and very sweet.

Taste - Sweet (too much for my taste), ending on a sour, tart note. Takes a couple of sips for my mouth to adjust to it.

Mouthfeel - The carbonation stimulates my tongue, making it a pleasure to roll it around my mouth. If it weren't so sweet, I'd let it linger longer. Smooth going down, but sticky on the lips.

Drinkability - Overall I like it, but I'm sure I can find one better suited to me. The sweet overwhelms the subtlety this beer might otherwise have.

B-/6 (out of 10)

Btw, here's how my point scale relates to my letter scale:

10: A+
9: A
8: A-
7: B+
6: B-/B
5: C/C+
4: C-
3: D/D+
2: D-/F
1: F

Customize Google firefox extension stopped working

2008-09-01T21:27:00.002-05:00

Recently, one of my favorite firefox addons stopped working: CustomizeGoogle. This extension provided search suggestions when typing a query into google. Unfortunately, for some reason it stopped. After following the directions on the addon website and some additional fiddling, I was able to get it working again. Here's how:

Set http://www.google.com as your homepage, not the one with the Firefox logo on it

Disable Google Suggest in CustomizeGoogle.

Click on preferences on www.google.com and make sure "Provide query suggestions in the search box" is selected.

Click Save Preferences.

Clear your cache (without doing this it still didn't work for me).

EDIT: Doesn't seem to work with Google UK. More info can be found here.

P Diddy - "Saudi Arabia... send me some oil for my jet"

2008-08-31T18:39:00.001-05:00

Diddy Blog #12 "Gas Prices are Too High"

NBC and CBS News streaming feeds you can access on Ubuntu/Linux through VLC

2008-08-31T17:02:00.001-05:00

I use VLC to see these:

If anyone knows of more useful feeds, let me know and I'll compile a list.

Instant QWERTY to Dvorak Keyboard Converter

2008-08-31T15:55:00.001-05:00

I use a Dvorak keyboard mapping exclusively. Sometimes, though, certain computers make it difficult to change the keyboard mapping from its default QWERTY configuration. Assuming your browser has Javascript enabled, you can use this online application to translate the keyboard map for you.