A few days with Ubuntu

I have been running Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) for several days now, and I am mostly happy with it. I am finding a lot of things to be faster under this OS, including anything written in Java or C# (such as my Linux replacement for WLW, BloGTK). I thought for certain that I would be running Wine (WINdows Emulation environment) after a few days, but so far I have not needed it. Almost any software I need I can usually open Synaptic and grab fairly easily. My X-Window issue has been resolved, it was apparently a problem with the window manager running on the system I was connecting with (as well as me not knowing about “gnome-session”). I am finding it much more useful to connect to individual applications than to an entire desktop. I also think that X is a little sluggish. I will be giving VNC a try fairly soon.
I am really enjoying Linux for a variety of reasons, one of the biggest is Microsoft’s attempts at taking my shell away from me. Some power users like being able to interact directly with an operating system, and not be restricted to UI tools.
Less than a week on Ubuntu, so I can’t say this is a permenant change of OS (since Windows XP is just a reboot away), but it is a very nice change of pace which is allowing me to think about operating system design as well as the overall end user experience a little differently.

James Biggers and Friends Exhibit

James Biggers and Friends Art Exhibit on Display

The James Biggers & Friends Art Exhibit will be on display January 20 – February 20, 2009 in the Jeanne Rauch (Rouwsh) Gallery on the Gaston College Dallas Campus. Fifteen artists from North and South Carolina will be featured in the exhibit. Gallery hours are Monday thru Thursday, 9 am to 5 pm and Friday, 9 am to 2 pm.

For more information, call 704.922.6200

New Blog Tool

I have pretty much decided that Drivel is a bit too trivial of a blog utility for how spoiled I have become from Windows Live Writer, so I am going to give BloGTK a try and see how it performs. It has some pretty cools features if they all work the way they are supposed to (insert images, advanced editing, tagging, keywords, etc). This thing can even delete entries remotely for me (such as the test entry I just destroyed). It’s still not quite Live Writer, but its a nice tool, although, I find myself still liking Drivel for short, simple posts… it is just so clean, but yet I still don’t have to write my entries in the MT web interface 🙂

BASHing My Head Against X

I have spent a great amount of time today trying to get a remote X-WIndow session on my Windows PCs (using CygWin) to my Ubuntu system. In WIndows I am used to starting a remote desktop connection and going right to my remote system. Things are a little more complicated at the moment in Ubuntu. First, I had to find the place yesterday to enable an SSH server to begin the process. Today I thought I would spend a small amount of time, discover the magic I need to master and then get it all to work well for me. This didn’t quite happen. I still do not have the ability to open an X-WIndow session remotely and I am having difficulty trying to Google the topic because I am not sure what I am looking for.

Running Ubuntu

Two days ago I decided to install Ubuntu 8.10 on my laptop. The installation was difficult to complete due to a flaw in my Dell laptop’s “thermal management” functions, but otherwise, it was smooth. Once in the OS, I had some minor issues with getting my wireless network card driver to install, but the drivers were available on the CD, even if not installed by default. At present everything is functioning well.
I really like the Gnome UI on Ubuntu, and I feel that the interface is quite intuitive. The best part about running Ubuntu so far is that like all modern versions of Linux, there is a package manager, which makes installing software really simple. No more hunting for the latest version of the software to install from many websites, just go down the list and select what you want to install, then apply and watch the package manager install your selections for you.
I originally thought that since I run a Windows network, in a domain environment, that I would have issues with communicating with the other systems, especially given that I had problems with Samba before on other Linux installs. Ubuntu seems to work well with Windows networks right from the start. The only thing I truly miss from Windows at the moment is Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer, for blogging. I am presently using a tool called Drivel, which works nice, but is certainly not as complex as Live Writer (I suppose I will just run that from Windows 7 on the desktop).
So far, Ubuntu seems very comfortable and a nice change of pace from Windows (#1 reason to switch to Linux, Windows XP is becoming boring).

The Future of GITI.EDUCATION

Staring at Beta 1 of Windows 7 I am also looking over GITI’s Education module and thinking about the comments I have been given recently about it. It would seem that while in general the assignment portion of the module is complete, except for a few process tweaks and a new feature for bulk edits. However, the course management side of things is not as happy. This is where the parallels are drawn between Windows 7 and GITI’s Education module. Things are done the way that they are because they have always been done that way. A few months ago I put in a few changes to the GITI code to allow for adding complete semesters and following the course process (registration through grading) in a rough fashion. This is what I think of as the “Vista” phase of the new generation of the Education module, things have been changed to move in a new direction, but everything isn’t completely baked and there are a lot of problems that must be resolved before it is ready to meet the world. The biggest thing I am running into is the lack of consistency between pages. One page allows for quality points, one doesn’t. One page takes instructor email, another doesn’t. And the biggest oversight in GITI ever, one of my pages will take a course section number, and the new one does not, but then records to the database as though it does, oops! In general, the new parts of Education are strong, but they are also not as tested as their older (6 years in June) counterparts because they make database modifications in bulk, and at present there is no division between the test GITI and the production GITI. Currently, everything just feels like a giant mess that I haven’t figured out how to sort yet. This semester could make or break the GITI Education module.

First Photography Assignment

This photo course (ART 288DH) is going to start off just like my other course, with an assignment involving stop-motion and blur. I remember really hating that assignment, there are so few things that move around me, my life is very static. Perhaps I should go out on some type of adventure and find motion. My only problem with that thought… it has suddenly become like 30° F outside.

PSYC 310 Research Paper

I just discovered the term paper topic for my “Theories of Personality” class, and it is a bit of a shocker: “WHO ARE YOU and WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?”.

My first reaction to this is to run away from the topic screaming “I don’t want to know myself!” or some other overly dramatic action. I am a highly variable person, so this will likely be hard for me. I have to manage to lock myself into one state of mind for this paper.

The general idea of the paper is to answer the question of who we are and why we do what we do, defining ourselves by personality theories, then we must defend the theory used. This could be an interesting paper, but at the start my first reaction to it is shock and horror.