i got the laptop dual booting using grub now! not too tricky, but since i had installed linux first, grub didn’t know i was going to install windows xp (obviously) so i had to figure out how to get that working… don’t have that url handy, but /boot/grub/grub.conf goes like this:

default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 ro root=/dev/hda3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-3.img
title WindowsXP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

note: to have a sony via (at least the pcg-f430) give a popup prompt menu for what device to boot from, press the esc key twice once the “sony” screen is displayed.

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i love web sites that let me get want i need done. crucial is a great example. besides making great memory products - they’re a division of micron - they make the memory easy to get at. i’ve made four purchases from them, all with no pain or suffering. the product selector is great. you go to the site, select the computer or motherboard brand, select the model, maybe do another sub-selection, and bam! you’re done - and almost instantly trackable via fedex. a few days later the right ram is delivered to your door.

i just got 256 megs for my sony vaio - no problem!

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these new desktop environments are getting really cool! gnome, kde and even windows xp are pretty cool! i’m really digging ximian gnome, but am torn between it and kde 3.0 - i’d been partial to kde over gnome until now, good thing linux makes it easy to switch between them! i went ahead and installed gnome on our sun box - cde gets the job done, but gnome makes it more enjoyable to get the job done. i even enjoy using windows xp’s default ui - well almost the default, but i don’t switch to classic mode. i’ve only used os x briefly, but it looks cool too! maybe it is all eye candy, but i enjoy it - i could watch tv on a black and white 12″, but my 36″ color is much more enjoyable! just don’t get too involved in tweaking things! the desktop environment is suppose to help you be more productive, not waste your time…

also, i’m amazed at the crispness of the icons and other display components on kde and gnome. kudos guys! (not to mention that they work really well!)

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yes, i did have to look up “etiquette”, but the point is i did look it up! ok, i’ve made up my own capitalization rules for my blog, but i do try to make at least mostly coherent sentences and try to get the spelling right! you would not believe some of the emails i get! i can’t post ‘em cos some are from clients, etc. i can see a typo here and there. or a dropped word maybe. or even tense or grammar error once in a while. and i’ll let a spelling error creep in on occasion. but you’ve got to be kidding me with some of this stuff! sometimes i can’t even make heads or tails from these people… and they’re computer literate? geez… ok, i’m done venting.

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this little mini rc tanks look totally cool! too bad they’re 60 bucks a pop. i don’t have that kind of extra cash for toys. with two you can play laser tank wars! you can even get a mini camera for them!

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i finally got to try out redhat 7.3. installed it on another laptop i snagged from work. (i swapped out it’s little 6 gig for a possibly dying 20 gig, but so far, so good - although the drive is a little noisey.) 7.3 isn’t too radical, but is cool and it is working well on this box - a sony vaio pcg-f430. it’s only got 64 megs so i just placed an order on crucial.com for 2 x 128 meg modules - only $95! (anyone need a 64 meg module?) that should make things run a little better. gnome and kde both look very good on this lcd panel. it was a bit tricky getting the new “ng” wireless drivers up and running for my wpc11 pcmcia card. i still haven’t got wep working, though - spent a lot of time yesterday and today on that, but have given up for now.

hack note: i was up until 4am on friday night trying to get the wpc11 pcmcia card recognized. i got close, but no cigar. when i rebooted in the morning, it was detected! i guess you do need to reboot linux sometime just like windows!

so now linux has a plethora of gui broswers to choose from: netscape, mozilla, konqueror, nautilus, opera and galeon. i haven’t tested the new ns version7pr1, but 4.79 comes with rh 7.3 and seems rather speedy than 4.76 on windows - even with opera and galeon open as well! mozilla is buggy and caused my machine to slow down cuz it was hogging resources - i downloaded the critial updates from rhn (redhat network) which patched mozilla, but i don’t know if the problem is fixed yet. galeon, which is based on the same “gecko” render engine as mozilla, was a nice surprise! very speedy. doesn’t seem bloated. and rendered the css from movable type very nicely. the only complaint i have i that the text box doesn’t wrap right - same with mozilla. opera works real well also. it has some problems with the css - the font is a little screwy with the calendar in movable type - but it doesn’t have the word wrap problem in the text box. (i’m using opera to enter this now.) nautilus is the gnome browser and seems slow bringing up pages, but it works and renders nicely. konqueror is the kde browser and is pretty cool. if i’m in kde, i tend to use that, but that could change with galeon.

well, i’m off to read a bit of the hacker ethic then bed…

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i finshed about a boy this morning - i mean thursday morning. not too bad - only took me about a week to finish. it’s really good. not like high fidelity, but good none the less. can’t wait to see the movie now!

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i hadn’t bought any movies in a while so during my trip to media play on saturday (to pick up the new moby cd and a few others) i decided to pick up ocean’s eleven (2001) cos i heard it was good and worth buying. turns out it really isn’t a bad movie. i enjoyed it. didn’t have the same pinache of the original, but you can’t really compare it to frank and the brat pack.

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well, i’m not satisfied. that was the series finale? guess they’re just building up for a new movie, cos there are still things not wrapped up in my opinion. the slashdot posters seem to be in agreement so far. so mulder’s turned religious… that’s the conclusion? (or he now believes in a “higher power” or “afterlife” that communicates with us - “i see dead people”-ish) the series went downhill after the first movie (ho hum, aliens exist so let’s go about our normal routine) so i wonder what worse a second movie could do? i remember the first years of the x-files as a source of inspiration of sorts in my own search for truth (sounds bizarre, i know, but i am a touch mental) but now it’s been a struggle for me to watch this soap opera unfold. ok, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but i wanted more.

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well, after getting the taste of wireless, i had to have more! so after snagging an aging laptop sitting in a desk - win98 with 64megs, ouch, but hey, it is a laptop - i trekked out today to best buy and picked up the linksys wap11 access point and wcp11 pcmcia wireless nic. after a bit mucking with settings, i got the laptop talking to my home network without a hitch. (the cost of 802.11b devices are dropping like flies - the wap11 was $150 and the wcp11 was $90. prolly cheaper online, but i needed instant gratification.)

i’m making this entry from the upstairs room in my house. it would have been a bitch to run cable up here! what a world we live in! now i just wish the batteries would last longer!

bonus: the wcp11 works under linux! now to get this thing to dual boot!

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