Mandrake Linux 10.1

I decided to finally do what I had planned to do a year ago: set up a dual WinXP/Linux dual boot on my Acer Travelmate 800 laptop. I had put it off up until now because of the lack of Intel Pro Wireless 2100 (aka the Centrino wireless) support. When I saw Mandrake 10.1 now had "full support" for Centrino I just had to try it.

Now I'm wondering if false advertising can be charged for something I got for free. Apparently "full support" in the Mandrake world means, "It will detect your wireless, it will identify your wireless, but will not let you set up connections." Perfect! So I ended up having to do what I COULD have done with any non-Centrino supporting distribution: install third-party drivers.

Oh, but the fun didn't end there. After the drivers were installed properly and a connection was established I thought everything was okie-dokie. WRONG! For some reason the wireless connection will not initialize properly at boot-up, so I have to go in as root and reconfigure the connection EVERY TIME I BOOT UP LINUX. Bravo!

To its credit, Mandrake seemed to detect and properly configure everything else on my Acer Travelmate 800. Even the ATI display worked nicely right away even at 1400x1050 resolution.

Before trying Mandrake 10.1 I tried the latest version of Knoppix, which is a Linux distribution that runs off of a bootable CD. I found it was a lot less painful to set up than Mandrake. Wireless worked right away, as promised. The frustrating thing was that my display would not work at anything higher than 1024x768! You would think with all thise open-source stuff these programmers would be collaborating to get things working consistently across distributions. Now it looks like I have to choose a distro based on which of the two I value most: proper display or wireless, which is pretty sad since my hardware for both is extremely common.

I'm not giving up on Linux completely, however. When I get the time I will probably fiddle around with it some more. But right now, at least in my view, it is not ready for prime time. Until the next time I get desperately bored, I'll see you in Windows XP Pro.

EDIT (1:02 PM):
I think I am going to give Knoppix another try. I found some tweaks that MIGHT get the display to work properly. Wish me luck!

Gmail Invite, anyone?

Gmail has exploded with invites recently. I currently have 50 to give out. Want one? Just email me and it's yours.

For the uninformed, Gmail is Google's free email service. 1 GB mailbox, quickly and effectively search through your emails without ever deleting anything, yadda yadda yadda. I have been using it as my primary personal address for a while now and I am loving it.

Quote of the Day

"Ah, lamentably no. My gastronomic rapacity knows no satieties."
- Homer Simpson, when Marge asks if the subliminal weight-loss tape is working.

This quote has been stuck in my head for the past 15 hours or so, and I have no idea why.

Low carb cereal tastes like...

... nothing. Seriously. This cereal tastes like nothing.

In an effort to keep my ninja reflexes at their peek (for faster button pressing and double-clicking) I tried Kellogg's Special K Carb-Fit cereal. Although people on the Lowcarber.org forums seem to like it, I don't care for it much myself. Give me a big ol' bowl of Cheerios or even Frosted Flakes instead any day. I don't need to be a carb-counter.

Enterprise Cancelled

I know this is old news but felt I should say something.

It figures that UPN would cancel the only show I watch on their network-- Star Trek: Enterprise. If they were going to cancel this show they really should have done it during either the first or second season, where the majority of the episodes were pointless. I thoroughly enjoyed the third season, and the fourth season has been even better. Unlike previous seasons, the fourth has been tying up loose ends and integrating it self rather well with Star Trek canon (at least from my view, but more zealous Trekkies may disagree). I know I'm going to keep watching until the final episode on May 13.

With Enterprises', as well as UPN's, ratings being lower than expectations I guess something had to give. There are also rumours that certain actor(s) on the show were not happy with their character(s), and the show overall. It looks like the Star Trek franchise's future is quite grim-- with the disappointing box office from the last movie, Nemesis, and now this.

Click here for the official announcement.

Happy (Lunar) New Year!

Year of the cock!

Not a natural writer

I admit that I have not done a very good job of making regular entries in my Blogs. Usually being the quiet person in the room, I don't feel the need to express myself as often as most people do. But tonight, while I should be sleeping, I feel I need to at least post SOMETHING. If there's any reason for it, it's practice.

This semester at Simon Fraser University is going to be a bit different for me. For the first time I'm taking more than one course at a time where a decent amount of writing needs to be done. Being a computing science major I'm not used to typing up large quantities of wordage all at one time. As a result I find myself staring at a blank OpenOffice text document struggling to find the words to express my response to a given assignment. Whether its relating the film Koyaanisqatsi to some other works, or writing my views on autonomy, the opinion is there yet I keep drawing blanks.

Now this problem also manifests itself while applying for co-operative education job positions. No matter how much advice I get or how many guides I read, I have a very difficult time finding the write words to "sell myself" to a potential employer. The cover letters are especially difficult for me.

Until next time: practice makes perfect (I hope).

Happy New Year!

Obligatory "Happy New Year" blog entry. The end.