I just can’t do it!

Over the last 5 years, I’ve developed a significant amount of “Google Juice” at cerkit.com. As such, I’m not going to retire it after all. This is probably the third time I’ve tried to move away from it, but it’s just not meant to be.

Once again, those of you that read the blog using RSS will have nothing to do, but those of you who visit the site using the browser will have to change your links to http://www.cerkit.com/cerkitBlog.

Thanks, and sorry for the flip-flop.

Default button mismatch

I have a particular irrutation that I must share. I think it’ll make me feel better. The “A” and “B” buttons on the Nintendo DS are opposite those of the XBox 360. Since the 360 was first, I blame Nintendo.

Since I play both often, it makes it hard to play some games since “B” usually means “Cancel” and “A” usually means “Select”.

Irritating at the least.

Thoughts on the new Zune 3.0 features

I have an “old” 1st generation 30GB Zune. Imagine my surprise when I learned that I will be getting the same 3.0 upgrade that newer Zunes will have. I won’t even have to buy a new one to get the new features.

Some of the features that I like the most:

* Support for audible – Zune now supports the Audible file format. Now I can listen to my audio books on the Zune.

* Live streaming over wireless – I bought the Zune pass which provides unlimited downloads for $14.95 a month. Not only that, but it enables the use of the Zune device over wireless to search the Zune marketplace and stream songs and albums directly from the marketplace, all without having to download them.

* “Picks for you” – The marketplace now has a feature that suggests music based on your listening habits as well as those of other users who have similar listening habits.

* Shopping wirelessly from the Zune device. Within a wireless hotspot, I’m able to search for and buy music from the marketplace. It will directly download the music to my device and keep it there. I can later download it to the desktop application if need be.

I had some problems at first getting the marketplace to work after signing up for the 14 day free trial. It turns out that, since I had a Zune pass in the past, I didn’t qualify for the 14 day free trial. Well, that’s my guess anyway. Microsoft support was no help in the matter. Once I bought the full monthly subscription, all of my troubles disappeared.

Now that I have the Zune pass, though, I’m running out of space on my Zune. To solve the problem, I recently ordered a new 120GB Zune with custom engraving. I’m still anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Zune.

All in all, I’m very impressed with the new Zune 3.0 upgrade. I’m more impressed that I didn’t have to buy a new Zune to get it.

23 things that only happen in movies

This is a funny list. Check it out.

23 things that only happen in movies

Day three with Ubuntu

I’ve spent another day with Ubuntu. That’s not really the important fact, though. What’s important is that my wife has spent a few hours with it. Aside from being totally incompatible with our wireless print server, she liked it. “It’s like Windows [Office] was before it got all complicated”, she said when I asked her how she liked it. Her primary purposes for using it today were to create an Office document and browse the web. Both went well. To print, she had to insert a USB disk into the computer, save to that, then tote (verb) the USB disk upstairs to open it in Word.

Ok, so the honeymoon is over, it’s not a practical desktop OS for our setup, but then we’ve got four computers in the house – three on Vista, and one on Ubuntu, a wireless print server, two wireless routers, and a hub – hardly a practical setup. If the printer was hooked up directly to the laptop, then I don’t think that printing would be an issue…but it isn’t, so it is.

Aside from that, it loaded the USB disk contents correctly, saved the documents in Word format correctly, and did it all without a single complaint or configuration file change. I’ve had trouble getting USB drives to work on Vista before, so I expected the worst. I was pleasantly surprised.

So, Ubuntu has passed the WAF test and I’ve been given permission to keep it on the laptop.

Where are they now?

There’s a good entry by GrabbingSand highlighting some of us who were highlighted in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution a few years back. It’s an interesting look back and includes a PDF of the article.

Where are they now?

It’s my 15 minutes, so check it out.

Moving to WordPress

I’ve decided to break my permalinks (after keeping them around for 5 years or so) and move on to using WordPress as my blog host. For those of you that are subscribed to my RSS feed, nothing will change for you.  Howver, for those of you who visit the website, you’ll need to change your bookmarks to http://cerkit.wordpress.com/. Cerkit.com will be retired, but Cerkit will live on. Once I figure out a good use for the domain, I’ll crank it back up again.  But for now, All I really need is a simple blog, and WordPress provides that for me.

Catching the Linux Bug

I recently decided to toy around with Linux. I chose the Ubuntu version as it’s what I’ve heard the most about lately. It installed perfectly and everything has gone well.

I’m not having much trouble with Firefox, though I didn’t like the default behavior of the backspace key. I expected it to go to the last page in the history, but it scrolled instead. It turns out that it was a simple configuration issue with Firefox. Now it works exactly as I’m accustomed to.

I’ve not yet gotten used to the idea that many of the apps have to be compiled to be used, but I suppose I’ll have to learn more about it. That’s an exciting prospect.

I’m having difficulty getting the Mono Develop .NET IDE installed as it tells me I need a certain version of Mono. I’ve got a greater version of Mono installed so I’m guessing that’s the problem. Hopefully, I can get that worked out soon as I’d like to goof around with .NET on Linux.

All in all, my experience with Linux has been incredibly pleasant, a far cry from my last tangle with it back in 2001. I never did get the GUI to work, but I was using it as a web server and a firewall, so it worked fine without it. Linux has come a long way since then. I’m impressed.

package management != compile in Linux

As ubuntucat pointed out in my last post (quite kindly I might add), package management is not the same thing as compilation. While there are projects out there that require compiling before use, it is now my understanding that the majority of the applications for Ubuntu are handled via package management.

In this entry, she describes how to manage packages in Ubuntu using the Add/Remove feature as well as the advanced Synaptic Package Manager.

Thanks ubuntucat!

Tags: linux, ubuntucat, ubuntu