Yearly Archives: 2005

Using Ubuntu

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For some time now I have been a ‘computer guy’… Being said computer guy, I have always been curious about trying new things, customizing old things, just breaking things, fixing things, redoing things, you get the point. Part of that curiosity has been trying out alternative operating systems. “Windows” and I always seem to have a love/hate relationship… I leave it for brief periods of time to explore(mainly, i explore the ways that an end user can customize any part of a linux distribution… it actually is somewhat overwhelming), but in the end always return back to my trusty “Win XP”. With my current exploration, however, I may try to make a permanent switch. My most recent exploration is ubuntu linux.

I used this operating system a few months back, but only briefly… I’m going to force myself to give it a good run, and only boot windows if I must, or if i feel like playing counter strike. Now on my 3rd day of ubuntu, i really have no complaints. One of the things i first noticed is that it seems the gap between windows and linux is definitely shrinking. Alot of programs i would use on a daily basis in windows are installed by default on linux; firefox, thunderbird, gaim, the gimp, just to name a few. With OpenOffice 2, i really dont see how I should need to use Windows except to play counter strike… My daily regiment of internet/email/chatting is set up EXACTLY like it would be on a windows system… Another big plus with ubuntu, it is the first distribution i have used that comes with synaptic/apt installed and ready to go. I’ve always had to set that up and configure it manually on a redhat/fedora install.

Long story short, I really like Ubuntu. As far as linux goes, its an easy to use, very functional distribution. Check out some screenshots.

I really wonder if linux will ever get to be a mainstream OS for consumers…
it seems that Macs are doing a great job of bridging the gap(perhaps due to
the sound coat tails of the Ipod)… Really, the masses don’t care what’s on
their computer, they just buy it from a reseller and then use it when they get
home. So really it will probably take a PC manufacturer to standardize a
linux distro and begin shipping their PC’s with linux pre-loaded. The fact
that Novell has purchased SuSE linux is huge… absolutely monumental.
Hospitals, Universities, probably the federal government, all the large firms
have implemented Novell. Why? Well, these large firms needed a robust and
functionally sound network infrastructure very early on in network computing,
when there wasn’t an alternative like Active Directory. Novell is going
linux, hence offering an imaged linux client, hence novell networks will
probably start veering towards linux (or, migrate to Active Directory). If
people use it at work, they will become familiar with it and feel comfortable
using it at home. I think its happening… slowly but surely.

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Holy update.

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Probably the biggest update i’ll ever write. To assist, a bulleted list of
topics.

  • 1. I am engaged
  • 2. Gamgee count
  • 3. People are idiots – Hurricane Katrina
  • 4. Best dream ever
  • 5. Misc / vacation

    • 1. Well, this week was a pretty monumental week for myself, as i am now
    officially engaged to be married. Instead of boring myself and everyone else
    with ‘how’ i popped the question, i’d like to reflect on the whole situation.
    I’ve been in a relationship for a really long time… By all accounts we’re
    pretty much married already. We live together, pay bills together, etc. Now
    it’s just a more accurate title. I couldn’t really be any happier, even
    though it was unexpectedly difficult to “pop the question”. The actual
    wedding is going to be sometime next summer/fall ish… My bachelor party is
    definitely going to involve knockout matches in some capacity.

    2. I have absolutely stolen the EXACT CODE from vanlandw.com’s
    bauercount to make a much more informative, stimulating, and all around better
    “Gamgeecount”. The spawning of this creation is the creative idea of myself,
    and my brother McManus. Basically, vanbergs and I were disgusted at the fact
    that “Rudy Gamgee” is going to be in season 5 of 24. We view it as almost
    certain demise of the series. vanlandw,
    on the other hand, seems to really like Rudy Gamgee, and is looking forward to
    him joining the cast. Clearly, the brothers McManus were not going to let
    such treacherous comments be tolerated without some consequence. As such, i
    have dedicated “gamgeecount” as a
    site purely dedicated to making fun of vanlandw.

    3. Perhaps the worst natural disaster that this country has ever seen
    has happened, hurricane Katrina. In the wake of this disaster, i genuinely
    think i hate the human race. Love, compassion, heroism; these human traits do
    not hold a candle to the disgusting things that we are capable of doing. I’m
    jumping ahead… This storm was a category 5 hurricane with sustained winds
    of 175 miles an hour. There was a MANDATORY evacuation of the city of New
    Orleans. Obviously, i am do not carry a genius level intellect. But, there
    is no way in absolute fire breathing hell that i would have been in that city
    when hurricane Katrina made landfall. People had all kinds of notice. Why
    would you even consider staying? That’s besides the point, people
    stayed, now they are swimming in the middle of the nation’s largest pond. So,
    then agencies from all walks of life are scrambling to help them get out of
    the city of New Orleans… How do people take to this assistance? They shoot
    at the choppers that are evacuating people, they loot for anything they can
    get, they shoot at doctors and patients being evacuated from hospitals…
    aboslutely the most hanus things i can even comprehend. Sure, not everybody
    is doing that, but the fact that even some of them can do something
    that terrible makes a part of me say “Leave them there, see how they fair
    without help”. … … … Maynard says it better than me.

    4. I recently had a dream that was straight out of 24… Even though
    in my dream i commit a murderous offense, it is set in fiction, so that makes
    it cool. In reality, i do not wish to do anything near what is described in
    this dream. Let me also preface this scripture by saying that “Jack Bauer
    murdered Nina Myers”.

    The dream begins with myself and vanbergs throwing a ‘party’ at our parents
    house in hart michigan. People are swimming, partying in general, a good time
    is had by all. However,
    we soon notice that the villainous mistress, none other than Nina Myers, is at
    our party!! Vanbergs and I keep giving each other looks to say “I cannot
    believe Nina is at our party!!” WE WERE SO ANGRY >:-0

    So, mystically vanbergs and I end up wielding two hand held firearms… We
    proceed to stalk up our stairs, into my old bedroom, where Nina Myers is
    sleeping on a couch. We stand side by side, brothers mcmanus, and proceed to
    discharge our weapons in rapid succession; ultimately replicating Jack Bauers
    actions. We destroyed the greatest villain. We were brothers McManus. I
    woke up with a smile on my face.

    5. Vacation is just about half over for me… Alot of people find
    themselves still worrying about their jobs while they are on vacation, but i
    have a great ability to put it out of my mind. This vacation worked out well,
    as ‘my fiance’ also ended up with this week off because she is changing jobs.
    We went to a zoo, took a daytrip to saugatuck, got engaged, spent some quality
    time together without worrying about working. It has been pretty nice.

    Aside from that, i have been playing Grand theft auto, san andreas. This game
    is by far the best grand theft auto game to come out, and the Xbox version is
    absolutely awesome. It took me forever to get a copy, as it has been
    ultimately banned and pulled from every store’s shelves, but i did get a copy,
    and i am enjoying the game.

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    Photographia.

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    I used my combined birthday money to purchase a new video card for my computer. I was running a 64 meg ati radeon, and it was definitely starting to show its age. I got a geforce 6200, which i like… It runs well, etc. etc.

    I just really have a sheer desire for a few different things right now that are all quite expensive. First and fore most, i really want a nice digital camera.. I’m not sure where this desire came from, but it is pretty intense. I originally bought a digital camera “just to have one”. It’s a decent point and shoot, 4 megapix, movie mode, decent pictures overall… As i’ve had the camera, i’ve really started to make a hobby out of taking pictures (although the vast majority never get posted to my gallery).. I just constantly find myself saying “dammit, i wish my camera could do _____”… The blank being various things from “zoom in further” to “take more shots per second” to “real macro mode up close shooting” to “control the shutter speed” to “control the exposure”… you get the picture.(heh, pun). I think this purchase may be one that i actually make a move towards, as I feel it necessary to have a real hobby that does not involve my career choice… (computers and things that directly relate to computers can’t solely be my hobby). Investing in a nice digital camera would allow me to move to another step, so i would actually feel like i’m pursuing a real hobby… perhaps “apiring amateur” would be a good description of what i’d like to be.

    Another reason that i actually think it better to invest in a digital SLR as opposed to a “high end regular digital” is the fact that a Digital SLR would be infinitely scalable. Digital SLR would allow for the addition of upgrade lenses, add on flashes, etc.. (That is, if i were to ever really get serious about doing photography)… Or, i could just stick with the standard lens that comes with the SLR. Erego, the SLR, although a bit more (100-200 more) up front, proves without a doubt to be a better investment, IMO.

    To help speed up this aquirement, i think i am going to sell my gameboy advance SP with all its games, accessories, and case on ebay… eh… maybe not…

    Too long of a story short: I feel like photography as a hobby is really something i’m interested in… but damn that is alot of money to drop… If worst comes to worst, i’ll just wait till i get a year end bonus, as that should be 10% of my annual income, which would be pretty substantial.

    ANGER >:-o

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    ***addendum… let’s play legend of the green dragon!. who’s in?

    birthday | vacation

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    My birthday has now come and gone, and i am 25 years of age… There was a pretty good turnout of friends and family in Sister Lakes Michigan, and the weather wasn’t too terrible. Overall, it was pretty fun. Probably the coolest thing about the entire weekend was mickeyvb just surpassing MacGyver as the best handy man of all time. Mickeyvb disassembled (sheer piece by piece) a boat engine while it was still on the boat, and while the boat was in the water, and while he was still wearing swim trunks. He then re-assembled it, and ultimately fixed it. There are quite a few pics in the gallery of the weekend…

    I’m looking forward to finally taking a real and scheduled vacation… I pretty much get 4 weeks of vacation, and i havent used any yet, so im just going to take 2 weeks off and see what happens. It’s wierd… When i was unemployed, i almost dreaded waking up in the morning just because i knew i was going to be completely bored off my ass. It really was almost enough to drive me insane. It was completely quiet all day, i would fall asleep sometimes during the day, then stay up late at night… that whole two months just kind of blended into some wierd long hard matinee movie that i cant even remember watching… But for some odd reason, I’m really looking forward to that same scenario for a couple of weeks. I have nothing planned, and dont currently plan on doing nothing… (?)

    I guess its all relative to what your life happens to be like…

    I might write more here later… brb

    Slow Down.

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    I mainly wanted to write this post to try out notepad 2… I do like it… but i think i like Vi better.

    Anyway… this day has been purely epic. I played some counter strike, listened to some new disturbed, ventured out with vanlandw to partake in what can only be described as pure vanhood. We traveled to “Silver Bullet Firearms”, rented handguns, and fired 100 rounds of ammunition each. I cant explain how rewarding that is on so many different levels. For my weapon, I chose a glock 22. lightweight, .40 caliber. I didnt want to go too big since this was the first time i have ever shot a handgun, and i didnt want to get a 9mm just because I am a van. Overall, the .40 was a good choice, but i did like shooting vanlandw’s Sig .45 cal. 🙂 photo weaponry

    Following 200 total discharges of ammunition, we ate at Mcdonalds… Following Mcdonalds i listened to some new disturbed again.

    All in all… a day of pure perfection.

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    Training and sun

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    This past week i had been taking an official Active Directory class… Although training is still sort of like work, it was good to change the pace a bit. I got a great instructor, and the fact that there were alot of hands on labs made it a very worth while experience. I learned more in a week then marty levin taught me in an entire semester. Basically, i sort of feel like i could call myself an expert on Active Directory now. I’ve had a decent amount of experience with it, and this training introduced me to the finer points of OU’s, group policy, etc. I must say 2003 has a much nicer group policy management console than did 2000.

    On Friday, i spent my training lunchbreak driving around near the GR airport. This was satisfying for a couple reasons. For one, i made it a point to drive by my old workplace “Progressive Distribution Services, Inc”. I felt a distinct urge to urinate on the building, but i merely smirked at the fact that I don’t work there any more. Secondly, i happened to come across something i never new existed. i just happened to drive right up to the GR Ford Airport viewing area. This is basically a long parking lot where you are situated 50-75 yards from the runways. I didn’t think too much of it until a massive passenger jet took off right in front of me. It was so close and so loud that i could hardly believe it… I really felt like a little kid. I was seriously infatuated watching these planes take off and land. So much so that i failed to even eat lunch, and was ten minutes late in getting back to my class. But, when it all ended I received this certificate.

    Friday night i headed to hart mich to help my dad get his 1973 plymouth ‘cuda polished up… He had registered to have it in a local car show, so wanted to get it in ‘ship shape’. It ended up looking pretty damn nice, and i was extremely jealous of that automobile. The Mickster did take me for a ride in it, at which point he displayed to me how easily the beast could liquify its tires. I then took 3 hours or so to hand wash, wax, and completely clean my car as well. It might seem like severe overkill, but my car is 1 year old and it still looks brand spanking new.

    The car show was amazing, especially for the city of hart. I have never seen that many people inside that hideous town. Alot of awesome cars… new, old, custom built, etc. Just packed the entire downtown strip of the city. I really like cars :-/

    I took alot of pictures at the show, of my fathers car, and of my own car (since it will never look better than it did that day) Feel free to check them out.

    My dad didn’t win anything, but it was fun to hang out at the show with him for the whole day. He was definitely in his element, and proud of his automobile. As well he should be, he put alot of blood sweat and tears into that beast to make it run. He essentially rebuilt the entire engine… And he had alot of people come by to talk to him about his ride…. The remainder of the afternoon and the next day were spent backflipping and sunbathing at my parent’s pool. I drank some labatt’s, ate some bratwursts, took some naps… Weekends really cant get much better.

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