08:06 – Friday the 13th falls on a Friday this month…
FexEx showed up yesterday with a couple thousand polyethylene dropper bottles, 100 dozen 15 mL, 50 dozen 30 mL, and 20 dozen 125 mL. With what I already have on hand, that’s sufficient for the first batch of 56 biology kits. We’re still debating how many biology kits to stock pending publication of the biology lab book. We want to strike a balance among timely delivery, working capital allocated to inventory, storage space for finished-goods inventory, and freshness of the kits. I have second sources (and usually third and fourth sources) for all of the components, so back-ordered components shouldn’t be a problem. Working all-hands-on-deck, we can probably build and ship 100 kits a week, so if there’s a real flood of initial orders we should be able to keep up with only short shipment delays. I hope.
Work continues on the final lab session. I’d planned to finish it today, but it looks like that’s not going to happen. I should be able to finish it over the weekend.
One of the first things on my to-do list after I get this book complete is to upgrade my main office system. I am running, believe it or not, Ubuntu 9.04. It’s just short of three years old, and even security updates were discontinued long ago.
The problem was again made evident yesterday. My Epson V300 scanner arrived on Wednesday, so yesterday when I decided to take a break I figured I’d set it up and see if it worked. It didn’t, of course. It required newer versions of some system utilities, and those simply aren’t available for Ubuntu 9.04.
So, come 1 February, I’m going to back up all my stuff, pull the current system drive, pop in a new 3 TB Barracuda, and install a current Linux. The question is, which one. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to install the current Ubuntu, which by all accounts has completely gone off the rails. I’m thinking about installing the current Kubuntu, but I’m certainly willing to consider alternatives. What I want is a good desktop Linux, ideally one that’ll recognize my scanner and other stuff automagically and Just Work. Same deal on stuff like networking my system to Barbara’s and the den system. So, which is the best desktop Linux out there?
14:19 – Oh, boy. S&P is getting ready to downgrade the sovereign debt ratings of France and Austria. For Austria, no longer being AAA will be annoying but not critical, at least for the moment. For France, losing its AAA rating is catastrophic. France now officially joins the rest of Club Med. And the FANG nations are now the FNG nations.
I’ve found SuSE to be decent on the desktop — though I don’t like GNOME v3, so I’d recommend KDE for it.
Thanks. I ruled out SuSE when Novell sold out to Microsoft. I was hoping something like Linux Mint or PC Linux would turn out to be suitable, but I don’t really have time to look at them in detail.
I’m finding Mint Linux to be pretty good, basically it’s Ubuntu that hasn’t gone off the rails optimised for stability & ease of install. I’ve currently got it running on and old P3 laptop with 1/2Gb RAM and a netbook with 1Gb RAM, I also routinely create VMs using it for testing purposes. it runs fine & all my peripherals just work. Anyway it can’t for you to try their live-usb version to see if it’ll work with your stuff.
http://www.linuxmint.com/
Nich Hills?
Nope – Norman from the UK 🙂
Ahh, sorry. I know a chap in Canberra called Nich Hills. Wrote for Australian Bridge magazine.
I really like Mint for a linux distro. It just works with most of my hardware. If you have a problem with wifi, there are ways to get it to work but I don’t think you’ll have a problem. If you have a problem with your new scanner, there is always Hamrick VueScan which works wonders for connecting scanners to computers in both windows and linux. I use it to connect my old scanner to my win7 computer.
I’ll second the vote for Mint. I installed it on my Son’s laptop and it “just worked”.
Ubuntu is still the solid standard… it has the best support of any distribution. What has upset people (including me) is the new window system method and design.. the “Unity” environment. It’s too different, too dumbed down, and fights you when you want to modify it.
The three alternatives:
Use Ubuntu 10.4 LTS. LTS means long term support, it is promised to keep updated until 2014. It still has the Gnome 2 based “classic” desktop.
Use Ubuntu 11.10 and change settings to get things back to better classic defaults.
Ubuntu fights you, but it’s not too hard. This is what I did myself. See: http://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/get-classic-start-menu-in-ubuntu-11-10-oneiric-ocelot/
Use Xbuntu, which replaces the windows manager with the solid and un-fancy Xfce window manager. This is what I’ll do next upgrade. Linus Torvolds also switched from Ubuntu to Xbuntu.
Since your system is this far out of date, if you want to go with Kubuntu, that you go with Kubuntu 12.04 LTS which is the next long term support version. Although installing Kubuntu 10.04 LTS and upgrading to Kubuntu 12.04 LTS before support for Kubuntu 10.04 LTS ends is probably the better option.
Thanks for the advice.
I thought about using an older LTS of Ubuntu or Kubuntu, but part of the problem is that I’m also getting upset with Firefox. I dislike Google’s privacy violations, but despite that I’m considering a switch to Chrome.
OFD has been high on Linux Mint. Unfortunately, my Linux escapades have been strictly to implement the radio automation software, and not to find a good universal desktop system. In fact, there will be no desktop at all on the automation system — it will boot directly, and only, into the automation software. I WILL be needing a desktop eventually, because after the automation is up and running, I have to come up with workstations to record and edit audio and video, and do all the traffic inputting for the automation.
But for that next step, there are certain systems I have ruled out, after already trying them. That includes not using any form of Ubuntu itself, nor any form of KDE. I am currently using Debian 6. It is behind Ubuntu — probably equivalent to your 9.04 Ubuntu, but unlike current Ubuntu releases, Debian is rock steady. There are some recent versions of Ubuntu — post 10.04 — that the radio automation software will not even run on, because developers left out crucial stuff in their haste to get it delivered.
Debian needs help finding drivers for a Dell laptop that Dell removed the standard Intel Wi-Fi and audio and replaced it with their own crappy substitutes. Ubuntu notifies me that I need different drivers and offers advice; Debian does not tell me anything: neither audio nor Wi-Fi works, and I am completely on my own in figuring it out.
I am anxious to try Xbuntu after Steve’s mention, but that is at least a month away. The radio project just bought a new digital transmitter to replace the old tube model manufactured in 1985. We can only do one thing at a time with our limited personnel, and installing that will be top priority over everything else.
As for Firefox, my latest upgrade has half solved the memory issues. It still requires more memory than the 3.x and 4.x versions, but about half of what it demanded just 2 weeks ago. I am going to stick with Firefox a bit longer to see if it improves further. They are losing market share fast, and may lose Google funding, so if they don’t get off their duffs, they may be history altogether. People with 8 and 12gb of RAM tell me there is no problem with Firefox. Obviously, the Firefox developers decided to program for increased RAM that is on newer systems, and that is killing those of us still using older computers.
Well, since OFD recommends it, I think I’ll give Linux Mint a try early next month. (But this doesn’t mean I’m converting to the RCC.)
Odd that Germany got to keep its AAA. Last week, many European-based economists were predicting that all big Western economies would end up with only a AA rating, including Germany. They were predicting that such a move would mean no one was in a better position than another — all would be on equal footing. Germany is not escaping a rising recession, with growth having dropped significantly (1% annualized) last month, which was the reason those economists thought Germany would not escape a ratings downgrade. Although final figures are not in, it appears Germany has had its worst year since reunification over 20 years ago.
Firefox just signed a new 3 year contract with Google and tripled the rate to boot:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222898/Mozilla_Google_seal_new_Firefox_search_deal
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/20/2649818/mozilla-and-google-agree-to-new-firefox-search-deal-for-next-three
Apparently Microsoft got into a bidding war with Google over the Firefox search box and Google won.
That’s what they all said, Bob! Thin edge of the wedge and all that.
Well, as I’ve detailed before, if any country other than the US holds a AAA credit rating, the US should be about AAAAA if not AAAAAA.
The truth is, every country in the eurozone should currently be rated below investment grade. Well below.
No wedge here. I’m ineligible to join the RCC or any other nominally christian church anyway. I took the Blasphemy Challenge. That thing I said about jc being the bastard child of a traveling camel salesman probably didn’t help, either.
I still think you’re more likely than not to make it…
As SteveF’s link shows, it’s a trivial matter to get Gnome Classic back, which is what I did on my 11.10 netbook and my ancient (formerly) state gummint XP laptop. I honestly gave the Unity thing a try for a while, but gave up; not my cup of tea.
If I was just now buying hardware and wanted a good solid desktop I would still choose Mint, nary an issue with various hw here and instantly recognized multifunction printer, scanner, copier, and its own SimpleScan program is WAY easier and faster than using Mrs. OFD’s Vista/HP scan sw. Also comes with all the codecs, etc. for running stuff not theologically correct to Linux purists. YMMV, of course, in your multifaceted production/writing environment.
Psssst….no one tell Bob that once he installs Mint he is automatically a hardcore Jesuit stormtrooper….
Surely you’re aware that nearly all Jesuits are atheists?
Point of order: that was a different Steve.
For myself, I stick with Debian. But this box is mostly a server, with just a bit of user-oriented stuff. When I set up another Linux box, soon, I’ll probably go with the latest Ubuntu just to see for myself what all the whining is about. For my user machines I’ve almost entirely been on Windows boxes because that’s what my customers require — a fair number of things just don’t run quite right even in a Windows VM*.
* Or at least they didn’t. VMWare might have gotten better in the year and a half since I really looked into it.
Whoops, sorry, too many Steves and not enuff OFDs.
I was thinking of the Jesuits as they were several centuries ago; nowadays they may as well be Unitarians.
I tried VMware Workstation and had various issues; also saw it at a former employer’s site for hundreds of Windows XP workstations and servers, and we had to do loads of reboots every day, all day. And lots of issues with the apps that ran on them.
For my home use and labs I have been happy with Virtual Box.
They would take Satan back on a deathbed confession, and he’s probably said worse.
My mom worked for well over a decade teaching in a Jesuit-run seminary-prep high school. She confirmed that what the Jesuits were working on, was not at all what you hear in church or catechism. She really loved working for them (head librarian and English/French teacher), and felt challenged (in a good way) by the research they had her doing for them in the library.
Separately, from what I am reading, both VM’s and WINE have advanced considerably during the last year. If you have not tried them for a while, it might be worth a new test. I just read that Windows MySQL works perfectly on WINE. A lot of Windows audio stuff that did not run on WINE a year ago, now runs flawlessly.
Of course, JC is an imaginary character, so it really does not make much difference what you have said about him.
All of us will eventually find out if He is imaginary or not.
Mrs. OFD lived with a whole building full of Jesuits when she was a little girl and her mom was working for them, and she also personally knew the Berrigan brothers. This experience had her knowing tons of stuff the ordinary American kid would never have had the chance to know at such a young age.
When OFD himself was still an Anglican/Episcopalian (prior to 1996) the Catholics he knew laughingly referred to Episcopalians as Jesuits who’d flunked Latin. Sadly, the ECUSA, or Protestant Episcopal Church of America that I was baptized, raised in and confirmed in, will be pretty much gone, through demographics alone, by 2026. That still leaves another 60 million or so, in Africa, especially. But in this country they have long been outnumbered by a variety of sects, cults, etc.
The Jesuits in recent years are an affront and a scandal to Holy Mother Church, and Loyola and a host of martyrs and saints must be spinning in their graves by now.
The other stuff Chuck said about vm’s and WINE is, however, true. Both have progressed quite a bit in the last year alone; RH has pretty much ditched Xen and gone to KVM now, but we aren’t using vm’s where I work, currently. Just multiple clusters of multiple X86’s and blades. Thousands of them. For those who like to mess with games and want to run some of them on Linux, try PlayOnLinux:
http://www.playonlinux.com/en/
OFD wrote:
“I was thinking of the Jesuits as they were several centuries ago; nowadays they may as well be Unitarians.”
Yeah, not all Jesuits are as good as Luis de Molina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Molina), who fought the good fight against the Augustinians, Calvinists, Lutherans and Dominicans.
Chuck wrote:
“Of course, JC is an imaginary character, so it really does not make much difference what you have said about him.”
Boy, not even our host says that. He just think there’s little or no proof.
OFD wrote:
“When OFD himself was still an Anglican/Episcopalian (prior to 1996) the Catholics he knew laughingly referred to Episcopalians as Jesuits who’d flunked Latin.”
You’re going the wrong way mate, you need to become a Baptist. RCs are just idolaters.
OFD says:
All of us will eventually find out if He is imaginary or not.
Actually, I don’t think we will — we won’t know whether anybody was right or wrong about any religion or anything else relating to causation. Funny that so many people believe that when our body ceases life functions, we somehow come into all knowledge. But they don’t really believe that, or most would just end it right now.
One thing I’m willing to bet on: there’s no 7 virgins waiting on people who take out scores of Christians as they take out themselves.
7?
I’m not sure that there are seven. I think I’ve seen numbers like 40, 70 and 72. I’d sure as hell be worn out by that many, not to mention the incessant chatter. And the suicide bombers and their ilk will be spending eternity with Judas, Hitler, Ted Bundy and the like, not in some paradise.
Among the homeschoolers I know, the parents seem more likely to tackle a bio lab than a chem lab, so it wouldn’t surprise me if you found that the bio kits sell better than your chem kits. Also, the number of homeschooled kids by the time you get to the high school years seems to drop. While I know some people who tackle bio during the middle school years, I don’t think I know any that really tackled chem during the middle school years.
Yes, that’s been my impression as well. Many homeschoolers don’t even attempt to do real science courses, particularly chemistry, at the high-school level, and that’s a shame. I’m sure part of it is that the teaching parent doesn’t believe he or she is competent to teach courses at that level, but the reality is that there are all kinds of resources available to give kids instruction as solid as any they could get in any public high school or even community college. The other problem, of course, is that doing real hands-on lab work is often perceived as being difficult or impossible, which is what these kits are designed to address. We try to keep them as affordable as possible without sacrificing scope or rigor.
Oh, as to middle school, in practical terms there’s no way we can do kits intended for kids who aren’t at least 13 years old. The CPSIA makes it so expensive to get kits for younger kids approved that it’s just not feasible.
Back on the Linux front. I have to give up the radio project’s 2005 Dell Latitude D820 laptop, which has been the main experimental machine for the automation system. It is going to be put into service as an office machine, so I needed to get it back to Ubuntu. Decided to try 11.10–64 bit. Prior to today, 11.04 is as far as I have been on any machine.
I must admit that 11.10 looks pretty darned good. Used Steve’s trick to get the classic Gnome desktop (however, there is more to it–see below). Shuttleworth has also removed the Synaptic Package Manager, so that needs to be installed (shame, shame on Mark for dumbing down software so dramatically and irresponsibly). But even the display in 11.10 looks somehow sharper than what I have been using previously. It still did not install the necessary Dell wireless drivers, but unlike Debian 6, it told me that I needed to install proprietary drivers to make that, and the nVidia card current.
I’m actually a bit impressed with 11.10. The main reason I left Ubuntu for Debian 6, is that a non-standard soundcard was causing all sorts of problems for me in Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.04 (it was fine in Ubuntu versions previous to 10.04), but was no problem in Debian 6. If I find no significant problems in Ubuntu 11.10, then I may return to Ubuntu for continuing exploits with the automation playout machine. So far, no one on the automation forum list is using 11.10 for an actual running production playout machine, but many are using 10.04LTS (with different soundcards than me). If I don’t experience any problems with 11.10, I may use that as the underlying OS. Ubuntu is certainly easier to work with than either Debian or CentOS.
Terminal shortcut is now Ctrl+Alt-T and accessing panel menus to change them is Alt-right-click on the panel area. That last one is grabbing a lot of people the wrong way, because previously it was just a plain right-click.
So many things are different in both 11.10 and the new Gnome, that actually, Steve’s trick of returning to Gnome will not work if you want the computer to boot up without entering a password — it will boot only into Unity, and you have to log out and switch to Gnome every time. That can be avoided with a tweak, though. There is no screensaver in the new Gnome, but that can be fixed, too. See the following link for lots of tweaks to get Ubuntu 11.10 back to what you are used to in 10.04 and earlier.
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/10/things-to-tweak-after-installing-ubuntu.html
I have to wonder what in the world is going on, when it seems everyone on the planet wants to change navigation methods that were both fine as they were, and something the vast majority of people have already committed to memory and pracice, as they have their native languages. So many changes for no good reasons.
I have to back down on my enthusiasm for Ubuntu 11.10. I did not read the Rivendell software documentation far enough to see that it will not compile on 11.10. This is the problem with Ubuntu, and it has hit me once again. There are several releases of Ubuntu that various components of Rivendell will not work on — and here is a release that will not compile it at all. Oh well. The new user of the Dell laptop will just not be able to play with Rivendell. Everything else seems to work.
Guess I will just move along to CentOS, even though I know that will be no piece of cake.