Hmm... not much to say when you're high above the Mucky-muck

Life goes on and there's just not a whole lot to blog about right now.

My sister just turned 20 on the 30th and Aaron has beamed away to Israel. I got to see Max & Jenny's house, which I think is quite nice, while we interviewed them for the forthcoming "special thing" that someone I know is putting together.

I really did get an iMac, in case you didn't know, and yes, it is a good thing. Now I have 3 functioning computers running Windows XP (NOT Vista), Linux (Ubuntu), and Mac OS X (10.5). So no one can call my opinions uninformed anymore... unless they are running BSD or something.

Here's some iSight fun to prove it:











If you made it this far, I applaud you.

-Garrett

Wubi: Install Linux on Windows Safe and Easy

The ease of the Wubi installation is self-evident so that newbies are without excuse.

Wubi installs Ubuntu linux as a program on your Windows computer and uninstalls just as easily.

• No Reformatting or Partition changing, it runs in a Windows folder
• Easy Install/Uninstall
• No changes to the Boot record in Windows
• 100% safe to your Windows machine

So everyone who's been wanting to try installing Linux, give it a shot! It's free.

One Warning: Takes longer than a typical install of Ubuntu, so set aside a good hour for the installation (uninstalling is much faster).

The Last Windows Installation?

So I'm an active tech user... I can't help it!

When my XP Pro installation gets too bogged down, I like to reformat it to try and reclaim the "new computer" performance.

• Windows, like most other software, allows you to make unlimited installations.
• Like some other software, it requires a Product Key / Serial Number.
• Like precious few other software, it requires online activation.
• Like NO other software, when it feels you've installed it enough times, it forces you to call in to activate.

I'm not the only person that feels that this is completely unreasonable. I would gladly call if it weren't for all the horror stories online. Apparently, MS Authentication Support individuals are trained to treat you like a criminal if you are have authentication issues (because, only pirates have those problems, right?).

I really don't think MS's overpriced software is really worth being on the phone with a foreigner trained to try and "bust" me (a long time paying user).



Be glad if you're not a geek. We are weird people.

Speedy Browsers - Who's the Fastest

For the speed buffs among us, here is a good page that details and graphs the raw speed of many web browsers.

For those who would rather I just tell you :)... here's the five fastest (1 being best):

1. Opera
2. Konqueror
3. Firefox 1.5
4. IE 7
5. Safari

These are MY ranking. So don't take them as technical holy doctrine.

Edit: Yes... Firefox 2 did NOT make the list. It definately lost some speed since 1.5. If you run linux, the SwiftFox build of 2.0 might perform very well, however.

Run Apple Safari on Windows

Sorry I haven't been blogging much.

Some news just won't wait though. Windows XP and Vista users can now run Apple's Safari browser based of the Web Kit project! Absolutely awesome. You really should give this baby a try :).

ALMOST makes me want to stay in Windows :P.

Thunderbird 2

Oh, happy day! ^_^

Thunderbird 2.0 is out :)

=)

Dear Bill

Dear Bill,

What is this thing that thou hast done to me?

I was having a pretty good day. I even finished my workout.

Enjoying the satisfaction of my victory, I put up my music player to listen to some music while browsing the net and casually chatting with friends.

Life was good...


And then this!


Why did you wait until now to unleash the all new "White screen of death" upon me today?

Who am I kidding. I love you Bill. You remind me the world is bigger than I am... and you, larger still. You are my daily dose of reality.

For goodness sake people, get a Mac! (Case and point)

Windows PCs 5x More Expensive to own than a Mac

Windows PCs 5x More Expensive to Own than a Mac

I've been saying this myself for a long time, but I didn't utilize any hard evidence to back my theory.

... well here it is.

Greased Windows

Since I'm not likely going to be able to make my switch to the world of Apple for a few months, I just had to settle in to Windows and accept my fate. Linux, unfortunately, is not an option for me due to my unique software needs or I'd be there in a hurry. And there's no point going to Windows Vista, is more expensive, slower, buggier, and more annoying than XP (at least for now).

So I decided to make XP as suitable habitat as possible. After reading through many guides, I found some that were worth following and have tweaked my machine to run like a well-oiled machine. It's FAST. Here's what I accomplished:

• Speed: Eliminating useless overhead in Windows and using so performance enhancements has made my machine almost as zippy as it was when I first got it (when it had NOTHING on it). My favorite though, was telling Norton to stop scanning my outgoing emails and program. With that change alone, things are opening in half the time or better.
  
• Beauty: Using some themes for Windows and Firefox that stress speed and space my interface has become delightfully non-distracting and my monitor feels like it grew an inch or two.
• Stability: I can't really claim this one until I've been running it for a while, but I was able to disable most of the superfluous "services" running in Windows. Without so many operations going at once, I expect I will not have as many incidences. Also, I disabled that dumb "Send error report" window! Whew!
• Better Browsing: My browser, FireFox, is no longer a browser for the general public. It's a lean mean browsing machine and it's been bookin' around the web since I gave it a tune up.

So what if your car has live GPS positioning, integrated map plotting, bullet proof windows, four and a half wheel drive, and can drive itself if you can only go 10 mph? I've removed the things in Windows I will never need (I can always turn them back on) and I'm reaping the benefits.

This is extremely Geeky, so I don't recommend this if you don't have at least a couple hours to spend on it (1 hour windows, 1 hour internet). Here's the best of the bunch as far as guides:

PC Stats Beginner Guide
Removing Useless XP "Services" Overhead (be cautious... definitely worth it)
Tweak Guides: FireFox 2.0
FireFox Preloader
TCP Optimizer (speed up your Internet)

That's it. Don't do EVERYTHING in those guides, it would take forever. Just do the things that look the best to you. With a little tweaking, you'd be surprised just how responsive XP can be.