Well, after a Herculean effort, Windows 2000 is once again my primary OS. Linux greatly appeals to the programmer in me, but not to the user. There are just too many inconsistencies and obstacles in the GUI. There’s also no Picasa, iTunes, or Photoshop (and I’m not about to mess around with Wine to get them working).
That doesn’t mean I’m giving it up, though. Since I had to wipe my hard drive anyway, I did as much experimentation as it took to get Linux working on dual-boot. That way, when I’m dying to try a Perl package that won’t work with Windows, I’ll be able to. And someday, when I can afford another machine (long after the wedding), I’ll keep a dedicated Linux box for file serving, backup, and version control.
Now it’s time to repeat the loathsome task of customizing all my apps…
Read more...Lessons in Linux/Java...
Well, TivoSlideshow is up and running on the Tivo itself finally, and it’s handling both images and MP3s. I’ve just turned it loose on my massive collections to see if any of my files will crash it.
A sampling of the lessons I learned this evening:
- A shell script won't run if it contains DOS-style line separators.
- "dos2unix" isn't installed by default; you have to install the "sysutils" package (a 30-second operation once you know you need it).
- The JAVA_HOME and CLASSPATH environment variables need to be set before anything will compile on Java, and the Linux installer doesn't seem to do it for you.
- Using getScaledInstance() on an image with Image.SCALE_DEFAULT looks really crappy.
Troubling and random problems, but I conquered them all with Google’s help.
Read more...You wanna know the hardest thing about moving from Nebraska to Arizona?
It’s remembering to call it “Carl’s Jr.” instead of “Hardee’s”.
Read more...If I wasn't a nerd before, I am now...
I currently have not one, but two projects running on SourceForge.
Read more...Sayonara, Jef...
I had set up a Technorati blog search for “raskin”, to keep me alerted to posts on the exploits of Jef Raskin, user interface guru and my personal idol. It was through this search that I learned suddenly on Sunday that he had died of cancer. This initial post was followed by a flood of later ones, as interface pundits learned of their peer’s untimely demise.
The interesting part, though, is that only a fraction of these posts appear to be in English. So far I’ve seen German, some Norse language I don’t know, Japanese, and Chinese, among others. Guess Raskin’s work really was widely known.
The Raskin Center Humane Interface (an open-source project to bring a Canon Cat-like interface to the masses) takes on new importance now - it may be the last chance this century for the world to experience a truly usable interface. Hopefully it will take off, and Raskin, like so many other geniuses, will come to be truly appreciated after his death.
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