twitch

Figured it was an appropriate title for this post, since it's somewhat of a "spur of the moment" thing.

Stumble Upon. Been using it for only a few hours, and it's incredible. It's a pretty simple Firefox addon (I couldn't tell if they had made it for any other browsers during the few minutes I checked out their site.) It takes about a minute to setup, asking for a username, e-mail, and your personal tastes in sites. Nothing too hard there.

Ok, so I check off my usual half-geek categories: open source, Linux (which is quickly gaining more of my time,) atheism, gadgets, hacking, and music. That was it. Once I checked off these things, the addon told me to just hit the "Stumble" button to have fun. And, for demonstration purposes, here are the first three sites it brought me to:

www.musicovery.com - A freestyle music discovery site. Pick a genre or musical style, and listen to some songs from it.

http://www.leetupload.com/tutorials/hackingspoonfed/part1/ - One page from a site that demonstrates a basic how-to for cracking the average static WEP you'll find in your neighborhood.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ - Pretty much self-explanatory. Got a USB drive? Well, this tells you how to put a LiveCD of some sort on it.

Since I've spent the last few hours of my life scraping around the net tracking down artists I hear on Musicovery, I can quickly see this become a great time-waster while at work. Hope you guys enjoy, and I'll try to add some fun sites I find in the related links when I can.

the dizzying heights of stupidity

Alright, it's long overdue; I've been way too nice to people lately, and I just can't let this one slide.

Apparantly, according to this report, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic stabbed a random woman (they had to throw grandmother in for the heart strings,) thinking he was Carl from GTA: San Andreas. The best part? They can link it all to not only drugs (shh!) but also to video games! Holy shit, this story practically tells itself. But, for the sake of practice, let's just throw some logic at this one.

First - stop with the "skunk cannabis" stupidity. It's just weed. Strong weed, but that's all "skunk" means. Yes, it also refers to a specific strain, but it's still just a strong depressant. If someone were to smoke the crap, I don't think they'd become so much "murderous" as "hungry." Really hungry.

Second - GTA: San Andreas. Oh man, they'll look for any reason to throw a violent video game into a "news story." I say that because a news network is looking for ratings. All the time, same as any TV station. Violent video games anger the older generations who don't have the knowledge of how they work or affect people. For a more in-depth look, check out one of my earlier posts. Basically, you can't blame the tool or source of inspiration for someone's (read: an aware, conscious person - they can make their own decisions!) actions.

Third - PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA. I don't think I can stress this enough. "I'm not sure Doc, I mean, you're the expert here, but I think it may have been the complete lack of reality rather than the weed." His diagnosis was a complete lack of fucking reality. Are you really surprised that he hurt someone? Hell, they even admit he's got a history of violence, including two convictions of mugging and assault.

Ok, so let's try an exercise. I'll Google "schizophrenic murder" and "cannabis murder." Let's see which one turns up more results.

Schizophrenia

Weed

"I think you may be a fucking moron, Doc."

Related:

In all fairness, you shouldn't consider someone dangerous just because they're mentally ill. I came across this link in the Google search and found it a nice counter-point to public opinion.

EDIT: Changed the Carl reference. I haven't played GTA since Vice City, and it shows. Thanks to Chris for the correction.

ubuntu and you too!

For those who pay attention to whether I live or die, you may have noticed my absence online yesterday (since I'm connected in some form about 24/7.) This was due to my installation of Ubuntu, an open source Linux distribution.

So, 24 hours and 4 formats and reinstalls later, I am here to offer my own review and thoughts on the latest and greatest in the open source movement.


First - this is not my first Linux installation. I've worked with RedHat for about three months while I was at RIT, and installed my first Mandrake copy (7.2, if memory serves me) when I was 17. I've also uninstalled all copies of Linux within a week of placing them on my system (if you found out that an operating system didn't support USB mice in the year 2002, you would too.) So, that being said, take what I say at face value, and if you disagree, blame it on the fact that I have some experience.

Second - in order to get the installation right, I wouldn't take the low road. Windows was getting the boot. My only data available was a LiveCD which I knew worked on my comp from previous testing, and a 40GB external 2.5" drive with "Firefly" and 20 gigs of music on it - not exactly tech support material, but what I figure the average user will be walking in with.

Ok, so - installation. LiveCDs are the greatest thing an OS developer could make. Popped in the Ubuntu CD, and while I was installing the OS (this is completely through a GUI, mind you,) I could browse around on Firefox. Hell, I could even just play on the CD, screw around and check if all my devices would work with Ubuntu. Installation overall was just as easy as Windows or OSX, if not easier - very intuitive.

So, my complaints? Drivers. You might be wondering by now why I would have to install the same OS four times in a row. The reason is half my own stupidity and half unrecoverable errors. I've got an Nvidia card, a Geforce 6800GT; not new, but still enough to run almost any game you throw at it.

Ubuntu decided it wouldn't natively support my card, and with that, no custom resolutions. No problems, I've read that Nvidia has great Linux support, and I've installed drivers before, so I hop over to Nvidia's site and grab the latest drivers. I read on their site I need to go to a terminal and copy some commands they provide. Not exactly as user friendly as Windows, but they tell you what to do - most people can follow this.

"You have an X Server running. Disable it to continue."

After some searching, I find out the X Server is the GUI for Ubuntu. Ok, so disable it and paste that command, and Nvidia will take care of the rest, right? Not quite. I've now got a black screen with an error message telling me my kernel's unsupported with this specific driver. Huh? Whatever, just let me get another driver.

Nope. Not happening. Know what we will give you, though?

_


Yeah, look above. That's it. Last time I checked, a underscore can't show me a forum with tips. It's a FUCKING BLINKING LINE. And I didn't write down the command to reload X Server. This little cursor is intimidation incarnate to the average user.

So, long story short, after four reinstalls, several pages of printer paper with odd commands scrawled over them, I got my video card working. This is not something I want to experience again, nor do I imagine the average user would deal with this long before going back to a Windows CD.

On the plus side, everything past this was a breeze. Yeah, there's some terminal stuff to do. In fact, there's a lot of it involved with setting a system up. However, you'll always be in a GUI doing this, and forums have the added bonus of thousands of users who know the exact command you need to use - just copy and paste.

So, what's my overall impression? I love Ubuntu. I'm using it at the moment to type this, and I'm finding all sorts of perks to it that Windows can't touch. It's also the most user-friendly distro of Linux I can think of. Also, it's FREE. Kinda hard to top that. However, to become a real competitor, there needs to be some more enthusiast-friendly documentation. I'm not a coder, and a command line isn't my preferred method of computer interaction, though I know it pretty well.

Also! My loyal readers all have a bonus - you now know someone who's installed Ubuntu as their primary system, and can help you through whatever questions you may have with it. Be intimidated by the command line no longer, just toss me an e-mail or IM with your question, and I can point you in the right direction.

Anyways, hope everyone at least checks Ubuntu and the open source movement out, and those who take the plunge have my undying support. Take a look at the related links below for some more info.

Related:

Want to just find out about Ubuntu? Check out their website and find out for yourself.

Linux can be intimidating, and finding obscure commands for a specific flavor of Linux can be a daunting task. The Ubuntu forums have a huge user base though, and most of them are always willing to help out the newbies.