MCAndre

Ubuntu 7.10 is good stuff. The new version is faster, more stable, polished, and even a little too sparkly. There’s a burn animation for tooltips!

Getting my Mac ready for the install was easy. Leonardo pointed out Ubuntu’s MacBook guide, which is very helpful. I used rEFIt as a boot manager. It’s graphical and already has icons for Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. To install that, I just ran the DMG.

After that, GParted was able to steal some gigs from my Mac partition to make room for Linux. That part actually took a couple hours, so don’t be surprised if the screen doesn’t change for quite a while. After chopping up the hard drive, I was still able to successfully boot back into Mac OS, and nothing was missing or corrupted.

The live CD is a fully functional version of Ubuntu that runs straight from the CD drive–no modifications are made to the hard drive until you decide to install it.

During the installation process I chose to install onto the “largest continuous free space.” This is the space left over from partitioning with GParted. After a reboot, my Mac partition is still great and I can now boot Ubuntu Linux.

The few things that didn’t work correctly had tutorials for fixing:

• double tap and two finger right click on trackpad
• wireless card–Leonardo also pointed out that madwifi is the way to go for some AirPort cards.
• speaker volume
• installing Ruby gems
• vi arrow keys
• reading private files from my Mac partition
• Greasemonkey for Firefox
• No hot corners? Use brightside.

A good place to start looking if you have any problems is the Community Ubuntu Documentation.

MP3s and other audio/video formats may not legally be included with Ubuntu. Therefore, you must install codecs (via the documentation) and for Real media (*.rm, *.ram, etc.) I had to install RealPlayer.

I ended up picking the Crux theme:

It’s cool. For games I chose AssaultCube and Wormux. Hey, Wormux developers! I found a bug. If you eliminate all but one guy on each team, then use one of them to kamikaze the other, the game doesn’t end in a draw. It hangs.

There’s a free equivalent to many non-free programs you use. Some are available for Windows and Macintosh. Find them or roll your own, that’s the Linux way.

Update: I now have a dock, kind of like Mac’s: the Avant Window Navigator.

Its animations are slow and the icons lose their sharpness for some reason, but some cool applets for it will become available soon.

I once dimmed my screen. Although I have since brightened my screen, every time I restart Ubuntu, my brightness level is reset to the lowest one. Bug report here.

Yes, vi and emacs are good. I do prefer a GUI, though. gedit does fine. I can’t say the same for Scribes, since Scribes has one window for every open file. Kate is fine, but only has one look, and like many of these editors, can’t open up a folder recursively. Even when they do, they try to open up files in the hidden .svn folder. It’s so easy to do this the smart way. I’m sticking to gedit for the time being.

Gah, mouse all over the place! Ubuntu doesn’t fine tune the mouse like Mac OS does. Every third word doesn’t appear correctly in my blog editor. A brush of touchpad can send the cursor to Mars or scroll down. The disable-trackpad-for-two-seconds-after-each-key-press trick does not really fix this problem.

Note: The WordPress editor doesn’t perform Undo correctly in Firefox on Ubuntu. I had three more screenshots in this post that were deleted when Control+Z caused all of them to disappear, and Redo did nothing. I don’t know who to blame on this one.

Again, there’s a problem with running Digital Paintball on anything but Windows. Yes, there is a Qudos installer. It needs to update to build019 already. And dang it, I’m a noob at compiling full-fledged applications for Mac OS. Someone needs to donate a MacBook to the dev team with specific instructions. “This device is to be used only for developing Digital Paintball for Macintosh computers.”

One more thing: Screenshot doesn’t include the window border when CompizBeryl flashy animations are running.

This just in: It looks like the Samba problems have cleared up! Now they install.

Everyone knows about the problems with Microsoft Windows. Internet Explorer holes, Outlook error messages, corrupt operating system files. But how many “switchers” will admit that Apple’s Mac OS has problems, too?

A more complex system has more complex errors. For example, Spotlight is great, but a search for “torrent” files I’ve recently downloaded has zero results. I can see those files right where they should be, but Finder can’t find them. This is why Automator can’t find some files and autodelete them. When I shut my laptop’s lid, it goes into sleep mode. Many times, when I reopen my MacBook, it does not awaken. But wait, there’s more.

Computer wizards often tab through forms, from one input to the next. On Macs, the Tab key skips checkboxes, buttons, combo boxes, and hyperlinks. I enabled the Arabic QWERTY mode, since I expect to eventually be typing papers for my Arabic class. Often, without any discernable shortcut, my keyboard mode switches to Arabic. More complex system, more complex bugs. Windows can’t run a program without begging for permission, but my Mac freezes when Finder tries to preview a big movie file. I haven’t tried Leopard, but I’ve heard it crashes.

Long after any software updates, my Mac decides keep napping rather than wake up. If I close my laptop without waiting for it to fully shut down, it will hibernate and not fully shut down.

Three times, iStat menus has stalled AirPort. Right-clicking Adblock or a tab stalls Firefox for a good five seconds before a menu pops up. So there’s give and take. VLC and Transmission don’t close file sockets properly, which is why I have to force delete files from the trash. At least I don’t have to wait an hour to switch wireless networks. Apple does make a decent wifi client.

Oh I’m blogging this one! I can’t Jaiku it, or Pownce it, or anything it with less stability and acceptance (visibility) than a weblog. I just have a few bugs that I’m not going to email to any development teams this week. Sometimes they respond, sometimes they don’t. I get spam, too.

Jaiku: Quit putting links to every status update in my RSS feeds. Microblogs are intended to be an extremely “Web 2.0″, social medium. I import my Jaiku feed into automatic posts for Twitter and other things. I often post my favorite new hyperlinks as a Jaiku status update. What my Twitter viewers see is that update, but with an extra link on the end, pointing back to that Jaiku presence page. It looks confusing, because there’s a highlighted link (the intended one for the new cool site) and flat, normal text for the Jaiku link. Enough! Add an option to not display those links.

Pownce: I sent you an email about this problem. You told me you think it is fixed, so I checked today. It is not. The problem is, at least on Firefox 2.0.0.9 on Mac OS X 10.4.10, logging into Pownce doesn’t work. I am moved to a page with an error message: enable cookies. They are enabled. A second attempt at entering my information works fine. Logging out and back in works fine. So Pownce must have an issue looking for the cookie before I login the first time. Fix it.

Wetpaint: You’re great. You’re my new favorite wiki. I wish you would give away your software, it looks so good. What do you use? Apache? PHP? Perl? Ruby/Rails? Python/Django? Now that I think of it, there is no reason to ever use wiki syntax. WYSIWYG is obviously the way to go. The problems I have noticed in the first 48 hours are few and minor. When adding a column to a table, at least on the aforementioned Firefox/Mac platform, initially, the new column is super skinny. After right-clicking it and canceling the properties dialog, it resizes to the correct width. Also, the arrows to add/remove rows and columns are too small. I keep accidentally clicking the cell areas surrounding them.

I love OpenID. Problem is, on many websites, once I create an account there is no way to merge it with an OpenID account. The whole point is to have one account for every website, but if I already put a lot of effort into a regular account, I don’t have time to carry that work over into a new OpenID account. So please, add an option to merge accounts. I sort of understand your idea of multiple profiles, one for each wiki membership. But maybe there should be a default, fully-fleshed out profile that automatically inserts its information into a new wiki membership. I shouldn’t have to copy and past my bio and avatar for every membership.

On deleting wikis: so you delete, or at least warn of deletion, for wikis without recent activity for 6 months. That’s a good plan. But if autodelete functionality is built in, why not add a link for the admins to delete the wiki ourselves? I already know that I want to delete the first one I made. I used it like a test to try out Wetpaint. I’m sure you’ll add this functionality anyway. I just want to push for it right now. Also, add more RSS feeds. Not just for recent changes to a whole wiki; for changes to a single page. One more thing: It’s common in wikis for headings to get their own HTML anchors. Could you make the editor add such an anchor for “Heading” and “Subheading” formatted text? That way, I can link to specific sections on my wiki. Lastly, are there keyboard shortcuts for formatting? I feel like dragging my mouse way over to the Link button is inefficient, when most of my editing is concerned with the left side of the window.

WordPress: Good work old chum. I suggest getting rid of categories entirely. I see a grand tags bar under my editor. Good, good. Could you make the editor window bigger? Would you make new image upload links in the image browser point to the images correctly? Add some storage space? 50MB seems kinda small by today’s standards. I know storage space is expensive, but dang.

Delicious: Great job. You’ve been fast (why I switched from Magnolia), always on as far as I’ve seen, and super socialdelic. I suggest adding the ability to save bookmarklets (or favelets). They’re growing in popularity, and the proper ones don’t take up too much space. I’d like search to be a bit faster, and more control over my tags. I tag things with slightly different labels, for example software. “win,” “windows,” and “win32″ are common tags for programs that run on Windows. I’d like to see a much faster search -> replace operation for renaming them. I also would like Delicious to create a page stating some suggested tags. Should we label software with “software,” “util,” “app,” “ware,” “program,” or even “utils,” “apps,” “programs?” Sometimes I want to identify a single link as being an “app.” Othertimes I want for my links to be included in searches for many programs, such as “windows music apps,” rather than “window music app.” I’m sure that most people search for “dogs” rather than just one “dog.” Is there an easy way to delete/merge duplicates? I haven’t found it.

Google Docs: Good job. You even rolled out Presentations. I’ve been having an issue on Firefox/Mac. Copying and pasting text from any window in Firefox to a Google document results in an extra leading space that won’t disappear. Also, There’s got to be a way to invite people to folders / publish folders. My group is working on several documents, not just one. And just add more features bit by bit like you do: page numbers, and not automatically opening in a new tab (we hardcore Firefox users find trouble with all things Google+tabbed windows, especially Google search).

Ubuntu: 7.10 looks so very neat. Gosh, even tooltips get their own trendy animations. What I don’t get is support for the three things that once I saw, I never wanted to depart with. Mac wireless cards. Two finger right-click. Two finger up/down/left/right scroll. Sure, Command+Tilde while we’re at it. But Mac wireless cards are so standard, and two finger right-click is sooooo easy compared to multitouch technology, they should be supported by the live CD. I admit, I haven’t installed Gutsy Gibbon. I don’t have the time to try it if the live CD is missing crucials.

StumbleUpon: Make a bookmarklet for stumbling. I hate all toolbars with the same passion that God hates people who include Reply All buttons in their email programs. (He gets chain mail, too.) So write some JavaScript and let me click it. That’s all I ask.

PHLAK: Get some higher resolution. Oh wait, you’re dead. A tear shed for those distros lost.

Yubnub: I love you to death. Use you every day. Get a grip on your traffic. Every day, your service has many outages. Here’s an illustration. I use Yubnub like lightbulbs use electricity. What if, hourly, all the lights in the US went out. We’d reinforce our power grid and get. It. Fixed. I know it’s a free service, so I’m calling out to the gracious donators out there. Help Yubnub get a real network backbone.

YouTube: Why are you changing your video player? It looks ugly and doesn’t work. With Firefox/Mac, I can’t select a point to play from any more.

Yahoo: Get that shit off your front page. Why do more people use Google? Because Google’s front page doesn’t look like People Magazine. It’s hilariously funny that the avatars for Yahoo Answers look so ditzy, considering their answers are also ditzy. volleyballgirljs says, “listen to your heart.” juicy_girl1993 says, “Since yours was the only answer i guess it was best :]…. Thanx for the info and wish me luck in 8th grade!! lol ty again.”

Popular websites: don’t include an autologin checkbox. Anything that might become popular will be accessed from a public terminal with no fucking privacy settings. Therefore, by having the “Remember Me?” box automatically selected, those poor souls will have their private information stored forever on horribly, horribly unprotected public computers.

Not so popular websites, or even popular websites. Also, movie trailers and reviews: The ones that declare “We are number one!” are never, ever, the top anything. You’re obviously trying to convince me that you are in order to get more customers and retroactively make your statement true. It isn’t going to work. The suckiest, money-waste crapfests in movie history use those exact same lines. #1 Movie in America! #1 Movie this Summer! Critics are raving [mad with rabies]!

All you other rogue sites: My roommate previews his HTML in five browsers. The least you can do is support IE, Firefox, and Safari. You lazy bastards! It sucks that there isn’t a common codebase, but it sucks so much more that some of you guys don’t even try.

An email from the Vice President, University Relations sent to all George Mason students:

/Below is an important message concerning protecting against staff infections. This information was prepared by Dr. Gigi Abdalla of Student Health Services./

Oh no! Not staff infections!

*What is MRSA?*

MRSA is the name given to a group of bacteria that belong to the Staphylococcus aureus (SA) family of bacteria. Most Staphylococcus aureus bacteria can be treated with medicines called methicillin-type antibiotics. However, certain types of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria cannot be treated with methicillin-type antibiotics - the bacteria are resistant to these drugs. These are called Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bacteria.

The real reason we’re all screwed is that our University Relations VP has no communications skills. ZOMG, methicillin-type antibiotic resistant bacteria! In other words, the UltraStaph.

It’s estimated that one in three healthy people carry Staphyloccocus aureus bacteria on their skin, in their noses or in the back of their throats and are healthy and have no symptoms. This is known as being colonized.

Gaa, illegal alians colonizing in our noses!

*How is MRSA spread?*

A person can become colonized or infected with MRSA if the bacteria enter the body by:

* skin contact with a person carrying MRSA on their skin
* contact with surfaces and objects that have been touched or used
by someone carrying MRSA, such as door handles, razors, towels and
sheets
* contact with dust that contains skin particles carrying MRSA
* By touching an open wound or scratching damaged skin, people who
are colonized by MRSA can transfer the bacteria from their hands
into their body, leading to infection.

In other words, DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING EVER.

*How can I avoid MRSA skin infections?*

* Keeping your hands clean by washing them thoroughly; before and
after eating meals, and after using the toilet.
* Keeping cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a plaster or
dressing.
* Avoiding touching other people’s wounds or dressings.
* Avoiding sharing personal items such as towels or razors.
* Reporting any unclean toilet or bathroom facilities to the proper
authorities.
* If you use local gym, to minimize any potential risk, you should
wipe any equipment before and after use, use a barrier (such as a
clean towel or clothing) to prevent your skin touching it and
shower after your workout.

My daily wound-touching quota won’t just fill itself, ok?

*What does a staph or MRSA infection look like?*

Staph bacteria, including MRSA, can cause skin infections that may look like a pimple or boil and can be red, swollen, painful, or have pus or other drainage. More serious infections may cause pneumonia, bloodstream infections, or surgical wound infections.

Away, pimpled demon!

*

What should I do if I think I have a staph or MRSA infection?*
See your healthcare provider.

Sorry, our Department of Useful Information is closed on Fridays.

Come on, WordPress, get Twitter support, or let me put JavaScript in my text widgets. I suggest my twitter while these things develop.

Leopard’s out in October, huh? I missed the WWDC keynote as I didn’t have Internet access.

Firefox 3 alpha 5 is out, but I don’t see places on my Mac. I can’t wait for the JavaScript password management. Flock team, get ready to copy and paste!

Flock won’t update my feeds or remember which folders I have open. I want a setting to update my feeds every five minutes, and a button to force update feeds.