Finally!

Thank you judge Sabraw for finally making sense of one of the most abusive practices in consumer-land.

Touching

I have no idea if it's true or not - if it isn't, then kudos to the person who wrote this, I want to know when your first book comes out - but in either case, it is inspirational.

Ups and downs

I know I'm not the only one feeling this way...

It's a mix. It's when things all seem to be going your way, where you are getting closer and closer to a major goal, one that will change your life... but the closer you get, the larger the pitfalls and the farther you have to fall.

I'm playing with larger stakes than I ever did, in a playground that is quite different than the previous ones, with kids who are bigger and smarter and usually nicer but sometimes a lot meaner. I can almost feel it, the triumph, the sense of elation that comes with achieving something big. But it can all disappear in an instant, and until the fat lady sings, it ain't over... and if this one implodes, the pain will be greater than I ever experienced, not only from the fall, but from having gotten so close.

So sing for me, lady. I want to hear the sweet sound of your melody. Because the constant thrill can actually be a little tiring sometimes. And I want to catch a breath.

HP = HoPeless

This has got to be some sort of world record.

If it wasn't so shameful - just consider the environmental implications of this being done on a large scale, as HP surely does - it would be hilarious.

Heck, it's hilarious anyway.

Tender

Sorry for the long hiatus... I've been finding myself somewhat "blocked" recently, not able to express myself in a way that makes sense.

Anyway.

Today I had lunch with someone I have appreciated for years, someone who signifies for me my "new life". I met him here as a client and I grew to admire him as a man and role model. He is smart and successful, kind and gentle, a mentor and, I have recently learned to say, a friend. I cannot say enough good things about this person, but he has touched my soul in so many ways that I cannot begin to describe.

Today he made me cry.

We were talking a bit about our paths in life and suddenly he tells me, with no warning, offhand, "you know, I look at you as a son". Now, he meant it in a specific way, that he tries to deal me as he does his son, mentor me the same way. But coming from him... I lost my words, then lost control as tears came to me eyes.

It took me at least 30 seconds to be able to speak again. I felt rather stupid by my reaction, and for making him uncomfortable. But I couldn't help it. He hit right where it hurts the most. He made me feel worthy.

I just hope I deserve it.

Still with Linux

I've been seriously thinking about it - as my last post shows - but even with the problems I'm not switching back yet. I will redouble my efforts to solve the freezing/crashing issue, because it is by far the most annoying one. I will try to hire someone to debug the Dexcom problem. Wish me luck. I... don't... want... to... go... back... to... Windows!

Windows may win after all

So if you've been following my experiences with Ubuntu, you know that I am certainly not one to give up easily, and that I was completely and totally committed to making the switch work. You also know I've enjoyed it immensly. I've now lived with it for two months, for the most part happily; when it works, it works smoother, faster and nicer than Windows, by all accounts.

Problem is, I've hit on three or four showstoppers that I cannot fix. And because I cannot fix them, it seems like I will be switching back to Windows XP.

Talk about a major disappointment.

I am going to list all of these showstoppers, but I want to say a few things before I do so. First of all, I test the "edges" of a system a lot more than a normal user does. I am a great example of "a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing". My showstoppers would (except for one) never hit a typical user's radar. I ran into major issues installing and running Kismet, for example, not exactly a typical application for most users.

Second, Linux support is both awesome and terrible at the same time. Yes, information is abundantly available. But there is too much of it, most of it is disorganized (severely), and worse, the folks posting tips make so many assumptions that it's very, very difficult to implement the tips without some major headaches. All of the more difficult problems I've encountered - except the showstoppers below - I ended up being able to solve using online information, but it was after I had to delve into dozens of forums, piece together disjointed information, and deal with a lot of hostility from folks who have the knowledge but for some reason seem to think it's simply beneath them to share it with "dumb noobs". In the Linux world, it really does seem like RTFM is the operative phrase.

Thing is, the learning curve is steep enough as it is without having to deal with all these unhelpful egos. Countless times I have seen a Linux newbie asking a question in a forum and receiving many cryptic responses along the lines of "reinstall package Z with option Y", which is great if you understand what that means. And if they dare to ask for clarification, they get links to lengthy - amazingly lengthy - bug discussions on Linux dev forums that are highly technical. And if they dare to say "wait, this is too much info, can you explain how to solve this or what the problem is?" they get the figurative finger flipped at them. It is the exception rather than the rule to have someone say "oh, yeah, here is a step-by-step tutorial to solving the issue", without an accompanying lecture aimed, it seems, at shaming the idiot who asked the question for their lack of knowledge of the obvious.

This is difficult to explain to folks who have been in the OSS world, but it really is extremely frustrating for someone coming from the Windows world. When I post a question, I want somebody to tell me what to do, not how to figure it out myself. Added information about what's going on would be nice. But bug discussions?

Anyhow, the following issues I have not been able to solve. Every single one is a major headache for me, on a daily basis. Put together, they are making it very, very difficult to not switch back. I love Ubuntu for all that it does. But I hate it even more for these things.

1) freezes. Ubuntu regularly freezes on me in one of two circumstances: when I try to put it to sleep (at which point it drops me into a text console, and I can go into a TTY from there and login, but I have no idea how to restore the GUI so I have to reboot), and sometimes when the screensaver is running (those are worse, they are "hard" freezes, Alt-SysRQ-REISUB doesn't even work). I think it's all somehow related to system heat (see point 2), but I don't know, I can't figure out how to debug it, and help is not easily available.

2) heat. My laptop (x61s) is hot, much hotter than it ever was under XP. This is annoying. I think it's causing my freezes. My battery doesn't last as long, either. The battery optimization tools in Ubuntu are not as good as in XP, or maybe I can't find the right information.

3) Dexcom. I still haven't been able to solve my problem with downloading my medical device data into the virtual machine. This is a big problem for me.

4) Netdisk. I am running into issues that are scaring me. For example, I transfer files from my Netdisk to my virtual Windows machine, and while they appear to transfer fine, when I try to open them in Excel (this is specific to Excel) they are supposedly corrupted. Since these particular files have many VB macros in them I can't open them in OpenOffice. I am beginning to be worried that files are somehow being corrupted at the source (my Netdisk).

Ideally, I'd like to pay someone to come and solve these problems for me while explaining (nicely) what they are doing, but I don't even know how to go about finding that someone. How do you find a Linux geek who would be interested, who would charge reasonably, and who would also be kind enough to educate?

Thus, in the end, I may switch back to Windows; I am almost decided, the only thing holding me back being the instinctive sense of dread I feel from thinking about going back. I really have grown used to all the nice, streamlined aspects of Ubuntu. I love being able to run tons of stuff on virtual desktops without dealing with performance hits, not having to run tons of programs in the background just to protect me from system weaknesses or because manufacturers decide I need to, being able to exit a crashed program with impunity without impacting anything else, being able to remove stuff simply by deleting it (shades of Mac here), not having system performance deteriorate over time, having applications fire up so much faster, and so on and so forth. They are all really hard to give up.

But I can't live with these problems anymore!

Ubuntu, Unison and Netdisk

So let's say you, like me, have decided to use Ubuntu...

And let's also say that, like me, you prefer having your backups in the form of file sync (like the awesome Windows utility Syncback) as opposed to the typical backup tools that come with UNIX and LINUX systems (which create .tar files).

So let's say that you look for something like that for your Ubuntu, and you discover Unison, which is a great little file sync tool that does the job well.

Now let's also assume that, like me, you are trying to use Unison to back (no, wait... synchronize) your files up to a Netdisk you had lying around from when you were a Windows user.

All fine and dandy.

So you install Unison - note that while both Synaptic and "add/remove programs" list Unison, but it's a relatively old version. To get the most recent, you need to go into Synaptic -> Settings -> Repositories -> Updates, and make sure you have "Unsupported Updates (hardy-backports)" checked. Then search for "Unison", mark "Unison-gtk" (not "Unison"!) for installation, and let Synaptic download and install it for you.

Great.

Now you connect to your netdisk - you've figured out how to do that by now, right? (sardonic laugh) - run Unison, create a profile, and...

Oops.

It claims something's wrong about permissions, and won't do it.

It took me awhile to figure out what's going on, but the deal is that my Netdisk is using a Windows OS file system (either Fat32 or NTFS), while Unison expects the Linux ext3 file system. Unison is therefore trying to match permissions on the backup side with the source, but since permissions do not carry over between file systems, it blows up and the backup fails.

It took me a bit longer to figure out the solution, but it's uber-simple. Open up a terminal window, or your file manager. Either way, you need to get into the .unison directory in your home directory. Then find the profile file you defined - the one with the name you chose and the .prf extension - and add a line at the end of it:

perms = 0

That's it. Start Unison and everything will work like a charm. It's crazy fast, too, much faster than any file copy operation I've ever experienced on my Windows boxen.

Who wants plums?

This is nuts. I just spent over an hour trying to get some of the fruit off our plum tree before it collapses - or starts shedding its fruit en masse on our yard.

I think I plucked at least 20 pounds worth - probably closer to 40. Organic, sweet, no pesticides, beautiful fruit. Who on earth is going to eat all this? I went across to my neighbor and gave him about 10 pounds. Here is the thing - the tree has at least 20 times that still left on it, ripening in the sun.

Anybody wants plums?