The big news is that I’m leaving tomorrow, and will be gone until July 18th. Thanks to the wonders of Akismet, blog maintenance hasn’t been a problem recedntly: hopefully it won’t become one.

In other news, I’ve been having an epic struggle with the Thinkpad. Ubuntu and CrunchBang are way too slow. SliTaz and USE won’t recognize my wired network card. Arch flatly refused to make X cooperate, although I’m wondering if that wasn’t a human-based error…I might try that again once I get back. And currently it has Ubuntu GTK 1.2 Remix, which does recognize the network card, and let me very easily install Wine–let there be much LANing.

I’ve also been plugging away at Twirminal, a terminal-based Twitter client written in Python with curses. It’s looking kind of promising–if it enters Alpha, I’ll either make a Subversion branch here, or else just host it on Launchpad. And even if it doesn’t work, it’s very nice to be writing in Python, not Java. My brain is smiling.

I’m sitting here watching the Stanley Cup finals (Go Pens!), and I just saw a new Microsoft ad, in the same series as the one with Lauren. I missed the girl’s name–it was something foreign and politically correct–but she went to the store and said she was looking for a good video editing laptop for less than $2,000. There was one Mac that made the price cutoff, and it had less RAM (only 2 GB) than a comparably priced PC.

I have two main issues here:

1. For video editing, what I’ve heard is that Mac OS X is a LOT better than Windows Vista. That sounds reasonable to me–I’ll confess I don’t have any firsthand experience. And if the only issue the girl has is a few GB of RAM…I’m not sure that’s decisive. Further reading here and here.
2. Note the lack of Linux. I’m not even sure I’m outraged–I’ve also heard that video editing is Linux’s Achilles’ Heel–and maybe this is one of those times were Linux is legitimately not the best option. But it’s also a very conscientious point on the part of Microsoft: mentioning Linux–however negatively–would expose the name to people who’ve never heard of it, and it would also legitimize it as a valid choice of OS. (Eh, guess I am outraged).

Think about it: the average hockey fan does not read techy magazines and blogs, does not care about the freedom of his software, has misguided notions about security and performance, and assumes that if there’s anything “new” he should know about, he’ll hear about it. Quite frankly, I don’t blame him. And from a marketing standpoint, Microsoft is right to avoid it. The mere use of the word “Linux” would make a few people wonder what it was, do some research, and–at best–convert, or at least realize that Windows is not the only solution for their PC.

That’s not all though. I have a sticker on the lid of my laptop that says “Ubuntu: Linux for Human Beings” with the Circle of Friends logo. I’m sure a few people have seen it, and it may’ve been their first exposure to Linux. But seeing a random sticker on someone’s laptop–especially if they’re a geek like me–isn’t the most inspiring reference. People will probably assume that it’s something that’s not meant for them, much like esoteric three-letter vacation destination abbreviations on the back of cars: a reference designed for the “in” group (yes, we know OBX, but MDI? BB? SWH?)*.

But if Microsoft said “Linux” on the television, and put it in the same category as Apple, maker of the sexiest laptops on the market*…Linux is something real, it’s something major, and it’s something you should learn about. We’ll know Linux adoption is really making progress when Microsoft gets more proactive about shooting it down. I can’t wait.

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*That would be Mount Desert Island, Bethany Beach and Southwest Harbor.

**[citation needed] I really like Thinkpads right now.

There are hundreds of stories about people who pulled an old Windows 95/98/ME computer out of their basement, put some kind of Linux distro on it, and are in a computing heaven, blissfully unaware of the age of their computer. And you never hear about people pulling the same computer out and saying, “Wow! Windows 95 solves all of my problems! Good bye, modern computing!” Why is Linux so dominant in this category? Here are a few reasons.

1. Release date. Microsoft has a finite budget. The portion labeled “OS Development” needs to go to a new OS that will pack in hardware-hungry features. The modern businessman doesn’t give a darn about how much money his computer costs, he just needs the latest and “greatest” software on it. So old computers are stuck with old MS operating systems, which lack the development techniques and consumer needs of 2009. Since Linux either has an infinite or non-existent budget (depending on how you look at it) some people decide to focus on lightweight distributions. 2009 software on a 1995 machine is much better than 1993 software on a 1995 machine. For example, would you rather use Abiword 2.6.8, or MS Word ’97?
2. Cost. Linux is free. Windows isn’t. Linux lets you burn bootable .iso’s, Windows doesn’t–if you can’t find your Windows 98 installation disc, it will never get reinstalled. This is pretty straightforward.
3. Support. Windows XP, Vista and (soon) 7 have  a number of support options, either from Microsoft, local geeks, or internet forums. They’re also too slow. Windows 95, 98 and 2000 are faster, but their support is limited to a few nice people dredging their memories to help you. On the other hand, Linux has tens of thousands of people willing to help you through forums (ubuntuforums.org (which helps you with any distro), linuxquestions.org, SliTaz forums, Puppy forums, DSL forums…) as well as comprehensive documentation and wikis.
4. Specialization. Since there’s only supposed to be one main version of Windows in use at a time, by necessity it has to be a Swiss Army knife of an operating system. Linux, on the other hand, has a whole bunch of options. A lot of people are happy with a terminal-only system. Some must have package management, other don’t need it. Some want a themeable desktop with pretty colors, wallpapers and icons. Others would rather have a sparse desktop and use the hardware savings elsewhere. And then you get nutcases power users who make a torrent slave, file/print server or media streamer. Have fun making that without Linux.
5. Hardware Support and Variety. As I pointed out a few weeks ago, sometimes hardware just doesn’t work. This problem is also present in Windows: OEMs have no reason to be polite and leave vintage drivers up on their website. Even if they do, making things work in Windows 95 is a nightmare: you have to burn a CD (or sometimes a floppy(!))with the USB drive driver, install that, use the USB drive to transfer hardware for the network card, the sound card, the USB mouse (if it works at all), and any other peripheral. It’s very hit-or-miss, and if you miss, you’re done. And don’t forget there’s no Plug and Play. Install. Reboot. Install. Reboot…aack! It doesn’t work!* With Linux (and especially with Linux on older hardware), the odds are that everything will work as expected on a vanilla install. And if DSL doesn’t recognize it, use Puppy. If that doesn’t work, go with SliTaz. Failing that, install ubuntu-minimal and put Openbox on top of it. If all else fails, maybe Ubuntu GTK 1.2 Remix** will work. I have a network card that works in DSL, Puppy and UGTK1.2R, but not in SliTaz and Ubuntu Server. I hardly care–there’s too many alternatives available to let these things get you down.

So really, there’s no excuse for not putting Linux on your old computer. Try it–you might be surprised by how usable it becomes–after all, your current hardware is probably overpowered.

Have fun.

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*Clarification: Installing hardware drivers on an old Windows is guaranteed to be tedious and time-consuming. With Linux, hardware will probably work with the first distro you boot up, and almost certainly with the second or third. I would rather swap CDs (bring a magazine to read in the three minutes it’ll take to boot up), than track down and install individual Windows drivers.

**Clarification #2: UGTK1.2R is the only distro mentioned here that uses GTK 1.2. And note that it’s mentioned as a last resort. Consequently, it’s the only distro on which Abiword 2.6 doesn’t work.

I’ve updated the hardware page to reflect the new Latitude. In case you were wondering.

Things were looking a bit dreary a few days ago, as the nincompoops at Dell tech support were thinking my Latitude Cpt’s motherboard was cooked. Turns out they were wrong (did I predict that?), and that the issue was something to do with  the RAM–swapping half of the Gateway‘s RAM (Wow! 32 MB!) solved everything, right up to CrunchBang throwing a kernel panic due to insufficient memory to boot off the CD with.

To be fair, Dell did question the RAM, but we agreed that 133mHz RAM would work in a 66mHz slot, which it did. And I, my techy cousin, and my programming teacher all agree that there is no such thing as “too fast” RAM. Go figure. I hate am not a big fan of hardware.

And now I’m not quite sure what to do with the darn thing. 32MB RAM and no hard drive does not an awesome laptop make, but since I’ve only put $5 into it I may hit up eBay for some parts (ooh! 20GB HD for <$30!). So I guess the ideal scenario would be to get Arch with Openbox running on it, with maybe a 4-6 GB Windows partition tucked away somewhere to satiate my love for StarCraft LAN gaming. Or if I only upgrade the RAM, I could maybe put Slax or Puppy or something on it…on second thoughts, maybe not.

…but it works!!

At a garage sale yesterday, I scored two laptops for $5 each, which excited me greatly. One’s a Dell Latitude CPT (one of those turn-of-the-millenia ones that advertises the fact that it works with Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98. The other one is a Thinkpad 390, which looks like a very well thought-out laptop (I’ve been craving a physical knob for volume, which it has, and it also has a slider for brightness, and fold out feet to tilt the keyboard). Unfortunately, neither came with a power supply (thus the $5, down from $10). But fortunately, my Inspiron‘s power supply was the exact thing needed for the Latitude.

Testing the Latitude at the garage sale resulted in the three keyboard lights turning on, the NumLock light turning off almost immediately, the other two staying on, with the power light, for a few seconds, and then the entire thing turning off. No fan activity. No video. No happy “I’m a computer and I’m in use!” noises at all.

The guy at the garage sale pointed out that it had no RAM (ergo the Thinkpad, bought for parts). So I went home, and after a bit of a go-around with multiple laptops, screwdrivers, vice-grips, my sister’s boyfriend’s magical screw-removing talent and the Ubuntu Forums, I learned that the Thinkpad RAM was probably no good, and that even with known-good RAM from the Inspiron, the Latitude did the same thing.

So I called Dell’s tech support robot, which told me after five minutes of pain that I had to speak to a live technician.

The live technicians had some sparkling advice:

• “Are you sure the power supply’s good? Try it with a different plug.” If I don’t have a battery, and the power supply is making multiple lights turn on, odds are it’s good. Also, I’ve been using it with great success with the Inspiron.
• “Oh, your hard drive (borrowed from the Inspiron) may not be supported, we refuse to accept responsibility about it.” Um…I should still see the Dell logo, and be able to enter the BIOS…
• “That hard drive has Windows XP on it, which is licensed for different hardware–it won’t be authorized.” I pointed out that it also has Linux on it, and that regardless <see above>.

So it took me the better part of 90 minutes to learn that, probably, the motherboard was toast. Although their incompetence before telling me that has me kind of doubting anything that comes out of their mouths, so I’ll probably ask for a second opinion at school.

Oh–and you’re probably wondering why I had plural technicians. The first one gave me a line about how the hard drive and RAM weren’t supported, and I lost patience and said, very evenly (it’s no good getting visibly angry), how erroneous that was. She didn’t respond, or hang up, or put me on hold, or anything–I just had a live, quiet line. I said, “Hello” a few times, and then just hung up.

You gotta love OOP: classes inherit from superclasses, yet Superman inherits from man, superhero inherits from hero and Superbowl inherits from…game. It’s just like real life, guys!

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Please, forgive my sarcasm, OOP is the paradigm that I either love to hate, or hate to love, depending on the weather.

• Write a >500 lines ncurses application in Python.
• Master Vim.
• Properly install and use Arch Linux.
• Figure out why I stopped using Openbox, what can be done to fix the problems, and resume Openbox usage.
• Propose, write, submit and get paid for an article for Linux.com.
• Acquire basic GIMP skills.
• Figure out why I have so many problems with StarCraft in Wine–it’s very jerky, slow and stuttery.
• Figure out what the non-GUI-related holes in my Python knowledge are, and try to fill them.
• Vastly increase my Gaelic skills.

…if I get 5/9 done, I’ll be very happy.

A few months ago, David Pogue wrote about basic tech tips everyone should know. I share his frustration–I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched someone use a computer, and said “You know–if you just type in “tsmacdonald” and then press <Ctrl><Enter>, it’ll go to “http://www.tsmacdonald.com”.” Or, “Instead of going to Google, why don’t you just use the little search bar in the top-right corner of your browser.”

And now I get to play the part of the fool.

I’ve long been frustrated by trying to track down RSS feeds on websites. Sometimes there’s a huge “Subscribe!” button, and I’m fine. Sometimes there’s a little RSS logo or “Subscribe” text lurking somewhere, and it’s harder to find (I actually picked up the habit of doing <Ctrl><F><”Subscribe”> to see if I could find it faster). And sometimes I just can’t find it, period. A friend of a friend has a webcomic, and I ended up asking for a link to the RSS feed on the Facebook fan page.

Enter Firefox.

If a page has a feed, Firefox shows the RSS logo in the far right part of the address bar. Click on it, and you’re taken to Firefox’s standard subscription page, where you can pick your favorite feedreader. No pain, no frustration, and a minimum of time.

People often think that StarCraft is just about winning battles, and forget the human/alien side of the war. They also commit serious faux pases in dealing with their units. To remedy the situation, I’ve compiled the following list of tips to make everyone happier.

• When Terran and Zerg units are first trained/mutated, they don’t have very much experience. Build a few Supply Depots/Creep Colonies, and have your soldiers practice their marksmanship hitting them. Then, have your soldiers fight each other–don’t worry if some die, they must not have been as good, and would’ve dragged you down in battle.
• Protoss units warp in from Aiur, so they’re trained all right, but they don’t really know their way around your planet. Have them tour your base(s) extensively, and then take them on a hike through the countryside. If you skip these steps, they’ll be disoriented, and won’t fight well.
• Wraiths should always move in a squad of six, with a Battlecruiser commanding them. Otherwise they won’t have as good leadership or squad dynamics, and won’t fight as well.
• Vultures are too cocky. Send them to the corner of the map for punishment, and don’t do anything fun with them until they get less cheeky. It might go faster if you periodically punish them with Firebats.
• SCVs/Drones/Probes are way too unappreciated. Give them a 5-minute break every ten minutes–they deserve it!
• Any person (Terran) that dies deserves a funeral.  A funeral should be led by the highest-ranking unit you have, and everyone should attend. Don’t forget that there are three people per tank, and several hundred per Battlecruiser.
• All Zerglings are twins (they come out of the same egg, right?) and one twin should never be separated from the other for more  than sixty seconds until they’ve matured past the age of twenty minutes. You have no idea how traumatic that can be.
• Give Zealots one minute to sharpen their swords before and after battle.
• When you don’t look at idle units, they lie down and rest. At least 8 out of every 24 minutes should be dedicated to sleeping to keep everyone healthy, so make sure you stop the activities of units and scroll the screen away from them for the alloted time. Don’t wake them up prematurely!
• People with parasites/the plague/infestation/irradiation might be contagious. Take them out of battle and out of contact with everyone else, and then bring in several Medics to treat them. It might not look like the Medics are doing much, but they are–they’re just respecting the sick unit’s privacy.
• Dropship captains run out of gum every ten minutes. Take them to a Command Center–they’ll get more.

This may seem demanding, but just remember that the better the morale, the better the performance in a fight. Happy hunting.

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Note to people expecting this to be something Linuxy or Pythonic: I’m sorry. Sometimes I need to entertain myself mindlessly. And StarCraft does work very well under Wine.

Note to people who are very confused about their StarCraft strategies now: Read the title.