ubuntu update

I love Ubuntu Hardy Heron. It is so stable it amazes me. Occasionally I have to reboot because an update requires it. More often I have rebooted because I did not know how to do something and my stupidity requires it.

One of the things I wanted to do was be able to use my Netgear SC101 server with it. The workaround was to put the files I want on a windows partition and then copy it to the linux machine. Surprise! Windows networking works so easily with linux, so much better than it ever did as a windoze box. Amazing!

I found a package on the net to let me attach the sc101 to Linux. I can see the device and the drives. I can't mount it yet because it is not a vfat partition. I am going to mess around and try some others. One note says it will not work with it when the device is setup for windows use. I hope that is not true because that would kind of defeat the file transfer purpose. We will see. Oh well, windows file sharing is working better now so that is easier. Workarounds are fun to come up with.

I spent the weekend figuring out how to write some AVI movies onto a DVD. I never did manage to do it with windoze; Ubuntu hack #36 tells about a system of scripts and a gui interface called tovid. The menu looks crummy but the vids play. Now I can watch Burn Notice anywhere on my portable dvd player. Yeehaw!

I still need to hook up my vpn client so I can get on the network at my job. That is not a high priority since they hate it when anyone needs to work from home. Oh well, who cares. I am working with linux servers more on my job so I have more reason to mess with linux at home. Like another thing I did last weekend was to set up apache, mysql, python and django.

I still have not found anything like Dreamweaver so I will have to install Studio 8. If I cannot get it to work on virtualbox I will have to pay $40 for CrossOver Linux. I miss Dreamweaver much more than i miss windoze freezing up and puking.

I have a feeling I will be using Ubuntu for a long time - and loving it!

bt

like the rabbi said, "Life begins when the kids move out and the dog dies..."

Unfortunately, life will not begin for me for quite a while it seems. Our old dog Buzz is about 14 years old. Just about ready to go. Then I get the phone call...."oh, this puppie is soooooo cute...Can I bring him home???"
Oh Boy! Here goes another creature with a shelf life of fifteen years or so.


He is a boston terrier-chihuahua mix (my wife says they used a pillow) named Gizmo. He is cute but he is seriously a puppy. He can't quite hit the paper, he has needle sharp teeth and is not afraid to use them. He drives Buzzy nuts trying to play with him. Yeah he is cute. I guess it is ok. We need a creature so it might as well be Gizmo.
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I had one nerve left...and Windows got on it!

My windows machine was moving insanely slowly. something was going on behind the scenes that was crippling the machine and I could not take it any more.

My first step was to try to reinstall windows. After getting it installed I ran the windows updater and installed several "critical updates". After installing Xp service pack 3 no other updates would install. All it would say was that "some problem on your computer is causing installation to fail". I went through this several times and finally said Enough.

Ubuntu 8.04, Hardy Heron sounded like the way to go. I have messed around with Linux before and wanted to see what it would do on a decent machine. I have to say my Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop is running better with Linux that it ever did with Windoze. I have a few things that are not working yet, but I can probably work around them.

There is a Netgear Storage Central server on my network that has no linux drivers. I tried installing it in a virtualbox vm. It looked like it installed ok, but I could not attach any network drives. I read about an app called crossover that is supposed to allow windows apps to run under linux. That will be my next try. If that does not work, maybe somebody will write an opensource app to use the server. My fall back is I hedged my bets when I wiped the HD and set up a 5 gig Windoze partition. I can dual boot into there, get the files I need from the server then go back into Linux and grab the files from that partition into Linux.

I need to learn a lot, but Linux is the future, so I need to move in that direction. I have a lot of windows apps, like Office, Project, Visio and Dreamweaver/Studio 8. Hopefully I can figure out how to make them work with Crossover or find something different to use, like OpenOffice.org suite.

We will see how it turns out.

bt

Whoops - forgot this was here!

Since my previous post I have finished my BS in SW Eng and MS in IT Mgmt, been really sick several times and had lots of crazy stuff going on.

God got me through it all, in spite of me. This morning Joanie reminded me of this place by sending me a link to her blog here.

maybe I will remember to write here more often

bt