Ars

Adam: sounds like you got your wish.

Matt: wha?

Adam: wang starts.

Matt: OH. Yea, OK.

Matt: Because I was gonna say, there’s an awful lot of people left here alive for me to have gotten any of my normal wishes.

There is what I would consider a long-running inside joke about ArsTechnica having a bit of a Mac bias. So what do I see today when I’m reading an article?

Ars Technica has a great article from a Finnish newspaper today, where a representative from a Finnish recording group (think RIAA, but proto-Uralic) said that playing back a CD on a computer was a priviledge, not a right. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about this since Ars does a great job of it, but here’s one quote that stuck out to me:

“If you are a Linux or Mac user, you should consider purchasing a regular CD player.”

Holy crap.

I hope this guy is mauled in the street by a group of rabid Lapplanders, at least one of whom is a were-reindeer or something. Seriously, these big media conglomerates need to realize that they’re going to hamstring themselves, particularly by targeting subgroups of users who have a historical tendency to be both rabidly committed and savvy.

I have to say the latest releases of GNOME and its affiliated programs have me about the most pleased I’ve ever been with my current setup. However, there are a few niggling issues that are annoying me, so this should be a productive post. I know, I know, I’m shocked too.

First off, there’s this issue I’m having with the compositing system under X. Well, one of the issues. The most commonly noticed thing is the corruption of the characters on the lower-side of the screen. If it’s a terminal, IRC, or something similar, I get this text corruption every now and then. I can repaint the screen to get rid of it (or switch workspaces, etc etc) but it comes back within a few lines. As always, click for the XBOX HEUG LOL version.

I also have problems with recently-closed windows still showing up on the taskbar and in the workspace switcher. Phantom window syndrome, I suppose. Also odd is that scrolling upwards in the bookmark list in Firefox gives me entire screens full of the same link. Not scrolling down, just scrolling up. Interesting.

My other main complaint about the latest releases is this: problems with my volume control. My speakers are hooked up to my Linux box, and the sound output from my Windows machine goes into the Line In jack. This works well, assuming that I have my Line In capture turned up, like follows.

Unfortunately, I can leave the room for a couple of hours and come back, and no sound out of my Windows machine. Checking my Volume Control, I see this:

It seems to automatically turn itself off. The question is, why? Anyone else running into anything like this, or am I alone on this one?

WordPress 1.5 was released last night, and I’ve updated the blog to use it. The upgrade from 1.2 to 1.5 was painless in the extreme, and I’m very pleased so far with the updates I’ve seen. Things that make me tingly in the special place include:

• Blacklisting - comment spam is a big problem these days (47 for me this morning), and you don’t always want to moderate the comments - so you can blacklist trigger words to send the offending comment spiraling into the nether void, never to return.
• Static pages - I’m working on what I can do with this feature - my book collection and a resumé page seem likely candidates. The editing feature for the static pages is really quite excellent.
• New theme engine - I’m thrilled that Kubrick is the new default theme, although now I feel less special in having it. We’ll have to see what new themes come out in the near future.

Once I can find some time and delve deeper into the nuances of this new release, I’ll have to make another post detailing what I’ve found. In the meantime, it seems to be quite the nice little upgrade.

As a tip of the hat to the Linux.Ars guys, here are my choices for the Linux Kung-Fu End of Year Awards:

Contributor of the Year - maybe this isn’t the conventional choice, but I’m throwing in with Jakob “jimmac” Steiner. I think his consistent work in improving the look of Linux for us all has a lot to do with a better perception of software for the masses. Sometimes the little touches get overlooked, and I don’t like that.

Best Community - the Ubuntu forum community. It seems like ubuntuforums came out of nowhere and rapidly exploded into a tremendous resource for the community.

Distribution of the Year - Ubuntu. Hands down, the most aggressively awesome distribution to show up since the original Fedora Core. This is the distribution that convinced me to move my wife onto Linux and is now making me think very seriously about moving my parents onto LotD as well. A motivated community, an installer that’s simply unmatched in the field of getting things right and the strong base of the Debian system make this one the Golden Shovel recipient.

Desktop Application of the Year - Firefox, thank you, drive through and come again. I’m sure many more people than I can say many good things about this, but I’ll just say that it’s the most used application I’ve ever had. And it has never pissed me off.

Server Application of the Year - this isn’t my strong area, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say Plone 2.0 - I’ve seen a lot of CMS system that looked perfect for hosting your clan site for CS, but this one actually looks professional.

Web Application of the Year - not my strong suit, so I’ll say Wordpress 1.2 - best blog software I’ve ever used.

Development Application of the Year - boy, do YOU have the wrong guy. Uh. Let’s see. MonoDevelop? I like Mono applications.

Hardware Vendor of the Year - nVidia, just for their continued support of the Linux community and releasing new drivers. ATI, where are you?

Online Publication of the Year - LWN.net - Linux Weekly News is good. I enjoy their product and/or service very much.

Dead Tree Publication of the Year - I’m going to go with Linux Journal magazine. I always find something interesting to read when I’m strolling through Borders or where-have-you in search of a copy of Knoppix Hacks to have my picture taken with.

Best Newcomer to the Community - Ubuntu, see above.

Best Improved in the Community - Novell for their work in backing Ximian and throwing resources at Gnome, OpenOffice.org and other worthy projects, and for kicking SCO in right in the Darls.

Most Anticipated Application - from what I’ve seen a final release of Beagle should be able to make me sell a lung or two. Not mine, of course. Plenty of good ones in weaker, more trusting people. But this looks like a super-nice piece of work.

Thumbs Down - I’m going to give this to the #debian channel on Freenode. This room, for all their claims to be about Debian support, have the most inclusive and unfriendly attitude on the planet. I’ve had several people who are GOOD with *nix turn down Debian as an option just based on the reaction of #debian regulars to their support questions. These cyber-Amish smug crackheads can all climb into a Volvo and drive it off a cliff.

And for a special note, I have to commend the members of #linux and the LKF on another year of helping people. True, we may have an overall attitude that would mesh well with most high school locker rooms, but when the chips are down, these are people you can build working relationships with and trust them to provide you options that are worthwhile, as well as a few opinions that are not. Let’s hope 2005 kicks even more ass for all of us, and may we have the rest of the world under our jackbooted heel by this time next year.

So in the grand tradition of the list posts that have seemingly become all the rage lately, I thought I’d contribute my offering of what I admire about some of the regulars in the #linux community. If your name is not mentioned, fear not, for sequels to this are as likely as sequels to the Left Behind series.

Which is to say, undesirable yet probable.

• whiprush - GNOME/Firefox/Ubuntu cheerleader and Glee Club President A-1. Jorge’s ability to deadpan a nervous breakdown conveys a palpable feeling that he’s so damaged by the presence of non-GNOME software in the world that he’s practically submissively urinating. Also, abuses schweeb.
• greenfly - published author, perl monk, has the ability to cause 3d6 points of damage due to regexp insanity exposure. Also, abuses schweeb.
• stonetable - our fearless leader. Capable, intelligent, determined, and a heck of a nice guy to boot. Has ability to ban your ass. Also, abuses schweeb.
• Xyzzy - distributed software guru. King of Obsolete Hardware. Nickname is ZORK reference, which makes him a demigod in my view. Also, abuses schweeb.
• orca-emu-drpetwar - convinces me that no matter how bad my life is, someone else is still trying to convince their mother that it’s not genetic material on the floor. Also, abuses schweeb.
• truck - answered the call to serve our country despite knowing better. Sticks to his guns, literally. Also, abuses schweeb.
• cikkolata - evil webstandards unicode goddess. High Priestess of the Shovel Cult. Uses perl, gratuitiously abuses those injuring the Queen’s English. Also, abuses schweeb.
• goatboy - King of All Things Ubuntu. Fixed my system when a malevolent package tried to bone me in the behind. Also, abuses schweeb.
• syndicate - fellow liberal! Knows more about things than you’d suspect, and is a long-suffering victim of the Vast Female Conspiracy. Cooler than you’d suspect. Also, abuses schweeb.
• schweeb - young and enthusiastic, LDAP is his bitch. Also, abuses himself more than any of us could possibly manage.

. . .and that’s just fine with me.

(click for huge version)

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages!

The time has come for an idea so simple and so obvious in its brilliance, that it surprises me that no one’s done it before.

Our very own case, courtesy the Dialectizer.

Case Goes Native Swedish

ExtremeTech has a small preview of Ubuntu today, and it made for some overall positive thoughts. But here’s what gets to me, is this quote from the “Problems” section of the article:

Finally, we were disappointed (but not surprised) that Ubuntu did not detect or configure the wireless card in our laptop. We’ve come to expect this, unfortunately. But it would sure be nice at some point if we could connect wirelessly right after installing a Linux distro, with no extra effort required.

What? Ubuntu picked up my Netgear MA401 802.11b card with no problems, configured the network using DHCP, and did the required netinstall features without even asking me a single configuration question.

So I think the problem is lousy equipment on ExtremeTech’s part. Don’t hate the distro, hate the card.