Wow. I like it. How's that for a start? :-D Well, I took the plunge on my Linux Mint running Dell Inspiron E1705 first. Things went smoothly for the most part. I had to keep running the package manager, and refreshing the views to keep getting the things I needed, which was a pain. The Update manager Ubuntu uses has NEVER completed an upgrade for me for some reason. However, its easy enough to fire up Adept, or Synaptic (my favorite) and keep hitting reload and apply until all your updates are downloaded.
Once all the updates were downloaded, and whatever you do don't reboot until they are downloaded and installed, I rebooted and viola, an upgraded system. EVERYTHING worked, except for the Nvidia drivers, which I expected. If you are running an Nvidia card you'll need to download envy 9.2 or later. Do a Google search for "envy nvidia drivers" and you should see the page. The page you want to go to is Alberto Milone's Home page. You'll find the latest updated envy package there.
Once you have downloaded the package uninstall the older version (via adept, dpkg, or synaptic) any older version you may have, and install the new one. Then run the envy command (with either the -t for text based console screen or -g for a xwindows gui) and uninstall the older nvidia driver and then install the latest version. The sound is still bad in some games, and doesn't work for voip (which bites). But, its not bad.
I updated the toshiba, which finally started running again (Thanks to the Lord, who is the ONLY one I can think of that could have gotten in running and so well). I have also updated my main PC with the printer attached. All is well. Feisty actually has turned out to be a nice upgrade. I especially like the newer version of Bibletime (1.62) that is included.
I also installed in on the work IBM Thinkpad to get some things done, and its doing well there too. Except the Airo wireless card still doesn't support WPA or LEAP in Linux.
Some other things I've noticed:
1. The icon feed back on app start up is different. The icon kind of flashes in KDE when you click or double click to start the app. cool.
2. The Guidance Power manager is MUCH better, and has MORE options. Liking that a lot.
3. The Kernel is 2.6.20 which evidently has better support for hardware. The Toshiba can now (actually in reality) hibernate.
4. OpenOffice.org is at the 2.2 version.
5. KDE is at 3.5.6 (which could also be installed on Edgy, but is default in Feisty)
6. On the IBM the screen resolution tool actually worked. Not sure it every really did in Edgy.
Lots of other updates, and updated apps i'm sure. However, the stuff I need and use everyday is what I noticed.
Now to try Beryl or Compiz which ever is better for KDE.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Spiritual Endeavors Part 1
Today, I want to talk about Spiritual Disciplines. Its kind of difficult because when most Americans hear "Discipline" its immediately negative, painful and hard to do. Actually its nothing more than actions of correction. They can be negative, but they can also be positive. For example, prayer. Prayer is always positive. Unless you are a Roman Catholic and Hail Mary's, Our Fathers, and the Jesus Prayer is what you say for self punishment (Penance) . The problem with our culture is that we're taught in every way to avoid self control. Even the Public School system encourages the lack of it. It does so by avoiding asserting external discipline when a child misbehaves, and when handing out free condoms to students. All of the arguments they use defeat any effort they weakly expend at teaching a kid to discipline himself in any other effort. I could easily say, "They're not going to do homework anyway, so we shouldn't assign it." Isn't that the EXACT logic they use for Condoms? "They're going to do it anyway, so we should teach them to be safe at it." Instead of standing up, and asserting self control, they cave in and destroy it, and the efforts of every parent who has diligently tried to build it into their children's lives. The same with Churches. We Preach that person should read their Bible, Pray, Fast, and be faithful to attend the worship services, and yet Church after Church will put a person into a position of service who is unfaithful, doesn't really read their Bible, or pray, and hasn't fasted in years, if ever. It defeats the message we're trying to preach. Every Sunday School Teacher, Deacon, Treasurer, Song Leader, and especially the Pastor, should be faithful in every one of the disciplines that I'm going to cover. If they are, God has promised blessings upon their lives, and upon the Church they serve. Look at Joseph. He was faithful to do what was right, and God blessed him, and the places and people he served were blessed as well.
So, the question is, are we going to work together to bring about revival, or are we going to blindly keep allowing the world to go to Hell by the millions because of our laziness? I say we get off our butts, and get on our knees in prayer and repentance, and do what it takes to correct our ungodly nature, or at least keep it in Check.
Now, we need a little Scriptural basis for this endeavor. I mean a valid question is "Why, on earth, would I want to live a life of self denial and self control?" I say its valid because God provides answers, and God doesn't give answers to useless and troubling questions.
First. We need to recognize the base nature of man. There are many who believe man is basically good, and that "given the opportunity" he'll choose to do right. Bologna, or Bull, which ever you like. God's Word says that men are altogether bad, and that given the choice they'll go their own way, and that is the way of sin. Read Romans 1 - 3 when you get a chance. Romans 3:10 - 18 sums it up nicely:
Actually if you are NOT SAVED by the grace of God through faith in Christ, you need salvation! You need to repent of your sin, and your sins (they are different). Jesus died on the cross to redeem you from sin, was buried, and rose again the third day for your justification. Thanks to His work on the cross we can now find Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness with God! email me if you want to know any more.
Second, We need to understand Spiritual Disciplines, or Exercises in relationship to that Deceitful heart. You see we have a base sinful nature, (yes all of us), and left to itself it'll lead us down a path of sin (any of them you pick). Spiritual Disciplines are a way to correct the child in us that is bound up in foolishness. And, according to Proverbs 29:15, "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." That's why Paul said in First Corinthians chapter 9 verse 27 (written normally as 9:27) "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." You see we must, as Christians, practice these things in order to keep ourselves in line, or allow God to get us in line. Its just like maintaining a fire. Just because you got it started doesn't mean its going to burn there all night. Some one is going to have to keep wood on it. The same is true with human hearts as is true with wind up clocks. Every know and then they have to be maintained.
Third, we need to be Disciplined in order to serve God. Romans 12:1 - 2 tells us:
This is by NO MEANS an exhaustive study of the need for Spiritual Disciplines. However, it should give you enough information to understand the need for them. As we go through in the coming days, or weeks, studying them or talking about them, I hope to explain how they relate to countering some base part of our nature, like giving counters selfishness, Fasting counters self indulgence, praying counters self sufficiency and pride, worship counters rebelliousness, Bible Study counters ignorance and sin, service counters laziness, and Witnessing counters apathy and spiritual death. Now, that's not an exhaustive, or exclusive list, because praying also counters selfishness for example.
Now, in another post, I'm going to tell you about my Kubuntu 7.04 upgrades (NICE OS).
So, the question is, are we going to work together to bring about revival, or are we going to blindly keep allowing the world to go to Hell by the millions because of our laziness? I say we get off our butts, and get on our knees in prayer and repentance, and do what it takes to correct our ungodly nature, or at least keep it in Check.
Now, we need a little Scriptural basis for this endeavor. I mean a valid question is "Why, on earth, would I want to live a life of self denial and self control?" I say its valid because God provides answers, and God doesn't give answers to useless and troubling questions.
First. We need to recognize the base nature of man. There are many who believe man is basically good, and that "given the opportunity" he'll choose to do right. Bologna, or Bull, which ever you like. God's Word says that men are altogether bad, and that given the choice they'll go their own way, and that is the way of sin. Read Romans 1 - 3 when you get a chance. Romans 3:10 - 18 sums it up nicely:
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:So, as you can see you are a wretch, yes you (and me unfortunately). In Jeremiah 17:9 God says of the human heart, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" What this means is that if you think your heart doesn't need discipline, you've been deceived. That's why the next verse in Jeremiah says, "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." What this means is that what you think of yourself is not accurate, what your mom thinks of you is not accurate, what your wife, brother(s), sister(s), dad, children, and friend(s) think of you is not accurate. Only God can accurately judge. And He says, you need discipline.
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Actually if you are NOT SAVED by the grace of God through faith in Christ, you need salvation! You need to repent of your sin, and your sins (they are different). Jesus died on the cross to redeem you from sin, was buried, and rose again the third day for your justification. Thanks to His work on the cross we can now find Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness with God! email me if you want to know any more.
Second, We need to understand Spiritual Disciplines, or Exercises in relationship to that Deceitful heart. You see we have a base sinful nature, (yes all of us), and left to itself it'll lead us down a path of sin (any of them you pick). Spiritual Disciplines are a way to correct the child in us that is bound up in foolishness. And, according to Proverbs 29:15, "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." That's why Paul said in First Corinthians chapter 9 verse 27 (written normally as 9:27) "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." You see we must, as Christians, practice these things in order to keep ourselves in line, or allow God to get us in line. Its just like maintaining a fire. Just because you got it started doesn't mean its going to burn there all night. Some one is going to have to keep wood on it. The same is true with human hearts as is true with wind up clocks. Every know and then they have to be maintained.
Third, we need to be Disciplined in order to serve God. Romans 12:1 - 2 tells us:
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.The only way to "Be transformed" is to work at it. Much of it God does, but even He expects us to "put our hands to the plow" and not look back (Luke 9:62). In Haggai we find that God required the people to get up and get at it BEFORE He blessed. Now, understand this is in relationship to SAVED people, the work God requires of those who are NOT SAVED is different, and NO amount of spiritual disciplines are going to get you saved. They only help you act more like you are saved. You cannot "earn" salvation, it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast, but we are HIS workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS (see Ephesians 2:8 - 10). So, we need to be transformed, and we need to be workers to the field, but we need to be disciplined in order to complete the picture. God tells Timothy through Paul in 2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." What that means is that we must be diligent to behave in a way that is pleasing to God, diligent to know the Word of God, and diligent to be about the work of God. Diligence, by the way, is another way of saying "through self control you pay close attention to."
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
This is by NO MEANS an exhaustive study of the need for Spiritual Disciplines. However, it should give you enough information to understand the need for them. As we go through in the coming days, or weeks, studying them or talking about them, I hope to explain how they relate to countering some base part of our nature, like giving counters selfishness, Fasting counters self indulgence, praying counters self sufficiency and pride, worship counters rebelliousness, Bible Study counters ignorance and sin, service counters laziness, and Witnessing counters apathy and spiritual death. Now, that's not an exhaustive, or exclusive list, because praying also counters selfishness for example.
Now, in another post, I'm going to tell you about my Kubuntu 7.04 upgrades (NICE OS).
Monday, April 2, 2007
Where you bin?
I know, its been a while. I've been up to a lot of things since I last blogged. I've been playing with some Ubuntu derivatives. Right now I'm running Linux Mint, and lovin' it. I discovered that most of my ills related to Kubuntu, were Kubuntu. I tried two or three of the feisty Herd Cd's only to be miserably affected. Two of the three wouldn't even load a kernel! However, the Ubuntu CD's worked just fine. Weird huh? Anyway, I'm really enjoying playing with a laptop that actually works for the most part. I say "most part" because when I load the proprietary driver for Nvidia the sound goes bad for VOIP software, and 2D games. 3D games have no issues with sound. I think setting up dmix will fix this with the latest versions of alsa, but I just haven't cared enough to fool with it.
I've also started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes. Ardent helped by sponsoring this thing for us, and I REALLY appreciate them for that. St. T would have done well to do things like this. But, that's another story. I'm thinking about posting some OpenOffice.org templates that I've been assured I can share for free, that are the forms used in the class. I have created a template for the Cash Flow Plan, Dumping Debt, and the Basic Budget form so far. I think Dave is onto some things, and I really appreciate his honesty in that much of this he didn't create he just packages it well. :-D. My Wife and I are looking at being out of debt in 2 1/2 years! Not including the house, that is.
Last Saturday, The family got out and cleaned up the Garage, it took us about all day!! I hauled off 2 loads of trash, and forgot to haul off the regular house trash! I have made up my mind that this place is going to get shaped up, or shipped out! I was tired of tripping over things, and not being able to find what I needed. So, we now have more room out there than I know what to do with! This coming Saturday, we're going to work on the rest of the basement! I don't think the kids (or the wife) believed I meant business until we actually started. Now they're worried, because they know I do. When we get done this house will be so much lighter we may have to tie it down! On a very sad note, we had to put our Golden Retriever down due to getting into the habit of biting. I took him off Saturday morning, and spent 60 bucks to get that done. I had such hopes for this dog, and to have it come to this is aggravating at the least. We've invested a lot of time, money, and effort into training, we just missed this thing. So, if you get a dog, discipline him early or life will get hard for you.
Anyway, I guess you can see now that we've been very busy. It seems a lot of things are going on all at once. We're finally over the sicknesses that seemed to get us down over and over again, even though Angela didn't get sick she did get something on her back that has caused some worry. Hopefully as we get our house in order, Spiritually, Physically, and Financially things well look up.
We also found a leak in the Church's water line, just after the meter. We lost 45,000 gallons of water. Can you believe that? We're still trying to figure out where the water went because there is no indication inside the Church, and there is no indication in the ground immediately around the pipes that this much water has been spilled. We're afraid we may be on top of a sink hole or cave. One appeared just down the road, so this isn't far fetched. I hope not.
I've also started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes. Ardent helped by sponsoring this thing for us, and I REALLY appreciate them for that. St. T would have done well to do things like this. But, that's another story. I'm thinking about posting some OpenOffice.org templates that I've been assured I can share for free, that are the forms used in the class. I have created a template for the Cash Flow Plan, Dumping Debt, and the Basic Budget form so far. I think Dave is onto some things, and I really appreciate his honesty in that much of this he didn't create he just packages it well. :-D. My Wife and I are looking at being out of debt in 2 1/2 years! Not including the house, that is.
Last Saturday, The family got out and cleaned up the Garage, it took us about all day!! I hauled off 2 loads of trash, and forgot to haul off the regular house trash! I have made up my mind that this place is going to get shaped up, or shipped out! I was tired of tripping over things, and not being able to find what I needed. So, we now have more room out there than I know what to do with! This coming Saturday, we're going to work on the rest of the basement! I don't think the kids (or the wife) believed I meant business until we actually started. Now they're worried, because they know I do. When we get done this house will be so much lighter we may have to tie it down! On a very sad note, we had to put our Golden Retriever down due to getting into the habit of biting. I took him off Saturday morning, and spent 60 bucks to get that done. I had such hopes for this dog, and to have it come to this is aggravating at the least. We've invested a lot of time, money, and effort into training, we just missed this thing. So, if you get a dog, discipline him early or life will get hard for you.
Anyway, I guess you can see now that we've been very busy. It seems a lot of things are going on all at once. We're finally over the sicknesses that seemed to get us down over and over again, even though Angela didn't get sick she did get something on her back that has caused some worry. Hopefully as we get our house in order, Spiritually, Physically, and Financially things well look up.
We also found a leak in the Church's water line, just after the meter. We lost 45,000 gallons of water. Can you believe that? We're still trying to figure out where the water went because there is no indication inside the Church, and there is no indication in the ground immediately around the pipes that this much water has been spilled. We're afraid we may be on top of a sink hole or cave. One appeared just down the road, so this isn't far fetched. I hope not.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Sickness Stinks!
Good Grief! Since Wednesday Night I've been afflicted with a "severe" case of the same thing that had gotten both my children down. Fortunately neither of them had it as bad as I got it. I'm just now coming back to some semblance of normalcy. I was able to actually eat solid food yesterday, after 2 days of no food what-so-ever, not because of an upset stomach but because of a VERY painful throat. My Temperature climbed so high Friday night that I went very close to convulsions, my wife says I did, but I think I was just shaking like that because I felt so cold. Normally for you to get in that shape it has to get at or above 104 degrees. I remember being that hot once when I was a boy, due to pneumonia, bronchitis, or something like that. My sleep patterns are so hosed that its going to be hard to get them where they should be. Its good to be back in the land of the living, even if its only partially at the moment. The Dr. (Ryan Mire of Heritage Medical one of few I would highly recommend) said I'd be contagious for 48 hours after starting the medicine, but wouldn't be 100% until some time after that. The nurse and Dr. both seemed rather surprised, if that's the right word, at the extent of the infection.
I think there maybe a connection to the backed up drains at the club where I exercise, the two kids and just getting real tired. Getting up and starting work at 3:50 am and then taking Christine to the Emergency room That night at 10:30 because of strep throat which caused me to worry. And, before her Michael had it, so more worry. Their cases weren't accompanied with the sheer pain mine came with fortunately. Once we got them on the Antibiotic their temps were fairly easy to control as well. I guess that's the blessing in this is that while they were sick, and that's bad enough, they weren't severe cases. I worried more about them, and I guess I forgot to pay attention to me, and wound up catching a double dose. I don't care what the risk is, if you are a man at all you're not going to refuse your son or daughter while their in pain. My daughter especially just wanted to sit in my lap for a little bit, and what daddy is going to say "no"?
Another blessing was that God helped me find a preacher to fill in today at Missionary Ridge. I was so out of it, to be honest, I just didn't care, but with Angela's careful prodding I worked on it, and God got it done. So, Bro Cecil Gilliland (sp? forgive me brother if its spelled wrong) is taking care of things today, and I pray God's blessings on his messages. One of these days I'll live in a land where nothing defiles, or makes unclean! I wont have to visit hospitals, or call Doctors. I wont have to preside over Funerals or visit cemeteries. I can't wait.
I think there maybe a connection to the backed up drains at the club where I exercise, the two kids and just getting real tired. Getting up and starting work at 3:50 am and then taking Christine to the Emergency room That night at 10:30 because of strep throat which caused me to worry. And, before her Michael had it, so more worry. Their cases weren't accompanied with the sheer pain mine came with fortunately. Once we got them on the Antibiotic their temps were fairly easy to control as well. I guess that's the blessing in this is that while they were sick, and that's bad enough, they weren't severe cases. I worried more about them, and I guess I forgot to pay attention to me, and wound up catching a double dose. I don't care what the risk is, if you are a man at all you're not going to refuse your son or daughter while their in pain. My daughter especially just wanted to sit in my lap for a little bit, and what daddy is going to say "no"?
Another blessing was that God helped me find a preacher to fill in today at Missionary Ridge. I was so out of it, to be honest, I just didn't care, but with Angela's careful prodding I worked on it, and God got it done. So, Bro Cecil Gilliland (sp? forgive me brother if its spelled wrong) is taking care of things today, and I pray God's blessings on his messages. One of these days I'll live in a land where nothing defiles, or makes unclean! I wont have to visit hospitals, or call Doctors. I wont have to preside over Funerals or visit cemeteries. I can't wait.
Monday, February 26, 2007
New Dell Laptop a winner
Unlike the HP AMD 64 bit laptop, everything is now working in the new DELL. I got a E1705 with the Intel Core 2 Duo T7400, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, 17"WUXGA screen, and Intel 3945 Pro Wireless card. I had to completely wipe the hard drive, but thanks to Dell's foresight in packaging a real Windows install DVD, and driver CD or DVD, I was able to install Vista on a 30 GB partition, and allocate the rest to Kubuntu Edgy (Linux distro I use most now). The only issue that remains is that with the Nvidia Video drivers loaded I get a lot of popping and crackling in the sound when I play a video intensive game. I can play DVD's with no ill affect, which makes me wonder what's going on.
I figured out how to get the Intel Wireless card to be up and running by login time. I put two lines in my rc.local file as follows:
Sound works, Video works, and to beat all hibernation works! (well for the most part, last night it never completely shut down for some reason). I'm really enjoying this thing, and I'm looking forward to Feisty going public, as long as I can still print to my brother printer. Brother's Linux support is horrible because its half hearted. They have a full blown CUPS driver for the Mac, but for some reason they are unwilling to put out a CUPS driver for Linux. What gives there?
My next attempt to make Linux really look good will be to install Beryl or Compiz and get the full 3D desktop I've been hearing so much about. I can't remember which works with KDE better at the moment, but I'll update the Blog here when I get that done.
Anyway, the son is enjoying his toy, and Dad is enjoying his, and the house is happy.
I figured out how to get the Intel Wireless card to be up and running by login time. I put two lines in my rc.local file as follows:
ifdown eth1and now things work pretty good. I'd like to be able to take this out, but its working, so its not urgent. What I found surprising is that the drivers for the wireless card worked right off the bat in the live cd boot up! I didn't even have to wait for the full install.
ifup eth1
Sound works, Video works, and to beat all hibernation works! (well for the most part, last night it never completely shut down for some reason). I'm really enjoying this thing, and I'm looking forward to Feisty going public, as long as I can still print to my brother printer. Brother's Linux support is horrible because its half hearted. They have a full blown CUPS driver for the Mac, but for some reason they are unwilling to put out a CUPS driver for Linux. What gives there?
My next attempt to make Linux really look good will be to install Beryl or Compiz and get the full 3D desktop I've been hearing so much about. I can't remember which works with KDE better at the moment, but I'll update the Blog here when I get that done.
Anyway, the son is enjoying his toy, and Dad is enjoying his, and the house is happy.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Drum Set pics
My Daughter has a FisherPrice Kid's digital camera, so this thing is grainy I know, but it'll give ya' an idea of the drum set. My son is sitting at it. He's taken some lessons at the Renaissance Center in Dickson, so he's not doing bad for a beginner. He has to concentrate, like his dad, too much right now, but he's picking it up. I hope that this helps him grow in his confidence.
Here's another one.Can you tell I'm proud of my youngin's? :-D
No Church, Waiting on Laptop, and Drums
I hate sundays with no Church. Due to the snow and icy road conditions this morning, left over from last night, we canceled Church. I hate doing that, but I know the people well enough to know what that'll do to the crowd. I know what you may be thinking, but I don't want folks feeling less than "spiritual" because they can't get out on the snow or ice, its not their fault. I also don't want some to try, and wind up wrecking their car hitting some odd patch of ice. I have found myself much more cautious about the snow since I've learned what it means to care about others. You think you know when your single, or living in Mom or Dad's house, but you don't really. Its not until someone is completely dependent on the decisions you make that you realize how important it is to consider what you do, and its affect on them, before you do it. Anyway, I remember in my younger days I would have plowed ahead and had Church anyway, and praise God there are those who can do that now, but now, I'm more reserved. I guess the two kids, and wife have made me a softy.
On another note, I sent back the HP, and as I said they were aggravating, but they finally returned my money. So, I've returned the HP and ordered a DELL, E1705, with the Intel T7400, 17" WUXGA (some outrageous resolution), and 4 years of accidental coverage, instead of 2 and its cheaper than the HP anyway. I would have liked the hp Intel version, don't get me wrong. I liked the 2 hard drive idea. I also have NO problem with HP in general. I really think they have the best server line with IBM coming in VERY close to 2nd. However, I like Dell's Laptops and Desktops. I Like IBM's midrange hardware better than anyone's, and I don't know of a second best there that's close. AIX on RS/6000 boxes just can't be beat for midrange power. All that said, I think its fair to say I'm not really attached to any particular vendor,however, there's one I can't stand, and they generally produce an OS that you can look out of, but if you open their glass panes you'll let the bugs in if you know what I mean. So, I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival, it'll probably get here sometime around the first of next month. Some reviews site its not very pretty and the speakers in it aren't very exceptional, but that's ok. I can add speakers, or headphones for sound, and looks aren't involved in my purchase plans. (I did price an Alienware laptop, because they look cool, but they couldn't come close to the price point of Dell.
The other interesting goody to come into the house is my son's drum set. We bought him a low end DDrum D2 drum set for about 380 at a music store in Bellevue, TN. My son just started jumping up and down Saturday when he came home and found it in his room. Again, I'd like to have a Digital camera to show it to ya' but alas, that's low on the purchase priority list. They're nice enough for starting, and they came about right with all the used drum sets I found that were worth having. Not only that, but I have a 2 year warranty (1 year from the store doubled by the Ccard I used). I think he'll take to it fairly well, if he can ever get me off of it. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed playing when I was in High School. Its amazing what you can remember, BTW, when you sit down behind one. My daughter wasn't so happy, 'cause now he has one more thing to irritate her with, and because she doesn't have a real Piano. (not to mention the fact that her casio keyboard cost about that much when we bought it a few years ago, and that she's been able to play sports, take Piano lessons, and everything else he hasn't for quite some time, but that's another story). Well, generally speaking everyone's happy here now, and life is good. God is great folks, and why He's so nice to me I'll never understand. He's given me a good family, a great wife, and two good (well, for the most part anyway) kids, and a great job doing what I love (on both sides, the Church and Ardent).
That's all for now. God bless.
On another note, I sent back the HP, and as I said they were aggravating, but they finally returned my money. So, I've returned the HP and ordered a DELL, E1705, with the Intel T7400, 17" WUXGA (some outrageous resolution), and 4 years of accidental coverage, instead of 2 and its cheaper than the HP anyway. I would have liked the hp Intel version, don't get me wrong. I liked the 2 hard drive idea. I also have NO problem with HP in general. I really think they have the best server line with IBM coming in VERY close to 2nd. However, I like Dell's Laptops and Desktops. I Like IBM's midrange hardware better than anyone's, and I don't know of a second best there that's close. AIX on RS/6000 boxes just can't be beat for midrange power. All that said, I think its fair to say I'm not really attached to any particular vendor,however, there's one I can't stand, and they generally produce an OS that you can look out of, but if you open their glass panes you'll let the bugs in if you know what I mean. So, I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival, it'll probably get here sometime around the first of next month. Some reviews site its not very pretty and the speakers in it aren't very exceptional, but that's ok. I can add speakers, or headphones for sound, and looks aren't involved in my purchase plans. (I did price an Alienware laptop, because they look cool, but they couldn't come close to the price point of Dell.
The other interesting goody to come into the house is my son's drum set. We bought him a low end DDrum D2 drum set for about 380 at a music store in Bellevue, TN. My son just started jumping up and down Saturday when he came home and found it in his room. Again, I'd like to have a Digital camera to show it to ya' but alas, that's low on the purchase priority list. They're nice enough for starting, and they came about right with all the used drum sets I found that were worth having. Not only that, but I have a 2 year warranty (1 year from the store doubled by the Ccard I used). I think he'll take to it fairly well, if he can ever get me off of it. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed playing when I was in High School. Its amazing what you can remember, BTW, when you sit down behind one. My daughter wasn't so happy, 'cause now he has one more thing to irritate her with, and because she doesn't have a real Piano. (not to mention the fact that her casio keyboard cost about that much when we bought it a few years ago, and that she's been able to play sports, take Piano lessons, and everything else he hasn't for quite some time, but that's another story). Well, generally speaking everyone's happy here now, and life is good. God is great folks, and why He's so nice to me I'll never understand. He's given me a good family, a great wife, and two good (well, for the most part anyway) kids, and a great job doing what I love (on both sides, the Church and Ardent).
That's all for now. God bless.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
YEEHAW turned to NO WAY
Well, so much for my excitement. I'm back on the crapshiba now. I guess I should be nice to it, it at least, runs Linux. I thought I had everything working until it just started locking up again. I couldn't for the life of me figure it out. I went back to base code, I even compiled my own kernel in Debian, and it made no difference. I worked with that thing to the wee hours of mornings (yes more than one) trying to make it fly, and all I got were crashes.
So, I fell back to returning the thing to HP. wow, what a sad experience. I was told "if the laptop just doesn't work out for any reason, you have 21 days to return it." I had the thing for 6 days. That's 15 days shy of the cutoff! I was on the phone (off and on between getting hung up on) from 9 pm, to 12:00 am! That's right 3 hours trying to work out a way to just do a swap out. Guess what? HP does not allow exchanges. I told them the AMD was giving me problems, which it was, and that what I was running, or wanting to run, was not tolerant to the AMD 64bit chips, which is true. I went over that at least 3 times. I also explained that I'm trying to get my house refinanced (that's another story) and opening another credit line was not a wise idea at the moment. The reason I say that is because they wanted me to open an account so that they could charge me for the new Intel based version I wanted, until the old AMD version showed up at their shop. I kept saying, "if there's any way to just do an exchange where I ship this one to you and you just charge me the difference, (about 300 dollars) and then ship me the new laptop that would work out better". No dice. Not allowed to. Nada. At one point Customer Service assured me this was possible and that the person, Kacy in Rochester (sp?), would be able to handle the details. When I got to Kacy she had no clue what I was talking about, or why she got this call! Gotta love communication! So, to make a long story short, I wound up just canceling all the swap out and just made it a return. I haven't yet completely decided what I'm gonna do, but I can guarantee it wont be, and that's buy an AMD based Laptop!!
So, I fell back to returning the thing to HP. wow, what a sad experience. I was told "if the laptop just doesn't work out for any reason, you have 21 days to return it." I had the thing for 6 days. That's 15 days shy of the cutoff! I was on the phone (off and on between getting hung up on) from 9 pm, to 12:00 am! That's right 3 hours trying to work out a way to just do a swap out. Guess what? HP does not allow exchanges. I told them the AMD was giving me problems, which it was, and that what I was running, or wanting to run, was not tolerant to the AMD 64bit chips, which is true. I went over that at least 3 times. I also explained that I'm trying to get my house refinanced (that's another story) and opening another credit line was not a wise idea at the moment. The reason I say that is because they wanted me to open an account so that they could charge me for the new Intel based version I wanted, until the old AMD version showed up at their shop. I kept saying, "if there's any way to just do an exchange where I ship this one to you and you just charge me the difference, (about 300 dollars) and then ship me the new laptop that would work out better". No dice. Not allowed to. Nada. At one point Customer Service assured me this was possible and that the person, Kacy in Rochester (sp?), would be able to handle the details. When I got to Kacy she had no clue what I was talking about, or why she got this call! Gotta love communication! So, to make a long story short, I wound up just canceling all the swap out and just made it a return. I haven't yet completely decided what I'm gonna do, but I can guarantee it wont be, and that's buy an AMD based Laptop!!
Thursday, February 8, 2007
NEW Laptop is IN!
YEEEEHAAWWW ! I just had to say it. My new HP DV9000z came in Monday, which is why I haven't put anything on the site. Well, I have EVERYTHING working (well, the wireless works with linxant drivers). I tried every distro in the world, nearly, and some three times, but I finally got Debian testing installed on the thing. I still can't print to my Brother MFC-5840CN printer (if any of anyone who may read this knows how to overcome Brother's crappy Linux drivers I'd love to hear from ya').
Here's generally what I did:
1. I repartitioned the Drives deleting the partition from the second drive and shrinking the XP partition to 30 GB on the first drive. Whatever you do, DO NOT DELETE either the HP Rescue or the XP Embedded Partitions (that's the little hidden Partition at the end of the first drive). It took me 5 1/2 hours to restore everything to get the quickplay back.
2. I installed Debian etch with the Network install CD in text mode using the "noapic iommu=off" kernel switches. This got everything in place. To simplify things I just created an ext3 partition on the first drive filling the empty space for "/" or root, which turned out to be about 32 GB. I then created a 2.4 GB Swap partition (Don't ask about the .4 part I have no idea why I did that) and a /home partition on the second drive.
3. I installed just what the Debian presets were for Desktop, laptop etc. (they were the default selections) and I told it to use a mirror.
4. When all that was done I rebooted into recovery mode, or single user mode, brought up the Wired NIC, and adjusted my sources.list file to upgrade to Sid to get the 2.6.18 kernel (I'll post the link to the guys website who actually pioneered the setup later).
5. Then I did the usuall apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade stuff to get the latest and greatest. Hopefully you have better luck at this than I did initially. Make sure you get the 2.6.18 kernel. Once everything is finished updating, edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst file and remove the "noapic" from the load line for the new kernel, and reboot.
6. You should now get a shiney new Login screen GDM style (right now there's no KDE on it to speak of, you'll have to install that through synaptic).
From here you can do what you want. I installed the Nvidia driver using the installer from Nvidia's website to get the full 1680x1050 experience (AND IT IS SWEET!). Do some Googling for HP DV9000z linux and you should generally find all the same sites I did.
My MAJOR disappointments are that there are still NO 64bit versions of many apps. Adobe's Flash is still not available in a 64bit version. Google's toolbar will not install because of Debian's stupid renaming of Firefox to Iceweasel. Ndiswrapper doesn't work because only the 32bit windows driver is installed, if anyone knows how to get ndiswrapper working on this 64bit box, I'd be very happy to hear it, however the linuxant drivers work fairly well.
I'm not sure I'll leave Debian on there now that I know what it takes to install it on the machine. I'd really like to have Kubuntu running on the thing so that it matches all my other boxes, so I'll probably download the 64bit Edgy Alternate install CD, as the 32bit Live CD wouldn't even boot!
One thing I can say, this thing is Fast! So, anyway, I have 30 days on the Linuxant driver, so I'll have to do something quick. I'll keep this site posted.
Here's generally what I did:
1. I repartitioned the Drives deleting the partition from the second drive and shrinking the XP partition to 30 GB on the first drive. Whatever you do, DO NOT DELETE either the HP Rescue or the XP Embedded Partitions (that's the little hidden Partition at the end of the first drive). It took me 5 1/2 hours to restore everything to get the quickplay back.
2. I installed Debian etch with the Network install CD in text mode using the "noapic iommu=off" kernel switches. This got everything in place. To simplify things I just created an ext3 partition on the first drive filling the empty space for "/" or root, which turned out to be about 32 GB. I then created a 2.4 GB Swap partition (Don't ask about the .4 part I have no idea why I did that) and a /home partition on the second drive.
3. I installed just what the Debian presets were for Desktop, laptop etc. (they were the default selections) and I told it to use a mirror.
4. When all that was done I rebooted into recovery mode, or single user mode, brought up the Wired NIC, and adjusted my sources.list file to upgrade to Sid to get the 2.6.18 kernel (I'll post the link to the guys website who actually pioneered the setup later).
5. Then I did the usuall apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade stuff to get the latest and greatest. Hopefully you have better luck at this than I did initially. Make sure you get the 2.6.18 kernel. Once everything is finished updating, edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst file and remove the "noapic" from the load line for the new kernel, and reboot.
6. You should now get a shiney new Login screen GDM style (right now there's no KDE on it to speak of, you'll have to install that through synaptic).
From here you can do what you want. I installed the Nvidia driver using the installer from Nvidia's website to get the full 1680x1050 experience (AND IT IS SWEET!). Do some Googling for HP DV9000z linux and you should generally find all the same sites I did.
My MAJOR disappointments are that there are still NO 64bit versions of many apps. Adobe's Flash is still not available in a 64bit version. Google's toolbar will not install because of Debian's stupid renaming of Firefox to Iceweasel. Ndiswrapper doesn't work because only the 32bit windows driver is installed, if anyone knows how to get ndiswrapper working on this 64bit box, I'd be very happy to hear it, however the linuxant drivers work fairly well.
I'm not sure I'll leave Debian on there now that I know what it takes to install it on the machine. I'd really like to have Kubuntu running on the thing so that it matches all my other boxes, so I'll probably download the 64bit Edgy Alternate install CD, as the 32bit Live CD wouldn't even boot!
One thing I can say, this thing is Fast! So, anyway, I have 30 days on the Linuxant driver, so I'll have to do something quick. I'll keep this site posted.
Friday, February 2, 2007
SNOW! Yes
Hey, this is just to commemorate our fist (howbeit half decent) real snow. It wasn't much, maybe an inch of real powdery snow. We tried making a snowman, and throwing snowballs, but the snow just wasn't slushy enough. Oh well, Christine and I had fun anyway, we made snow angels, and did our best with the snow balls. I wish I had a digital camera so I could post images of it, but, alas that's yet to come.
Michael, my son, is sick with a stomach Virus of some kind, and can't go out. So, it wasn't as much fun thinking of him stuck in the bed. I'm working from home today so I could enjoy this as much as possible, its not like Snow comes very often around here any more. What's up with that anyway?
Oh, I got word that the new Laptop is in route! YEA! So it should be here sometime after the 7th or 8th. I got the free shipping, if you know what I mean. Well, enjoy the weather and may God bless you and yours.
Michael, my son, is sick with a stomach Virus of some kind, and can't go out. So, it wasn't as much fun thinking of him stuck in the bed. I'm working from home today so I could enjoy this as much as possible, its not like Snow comes very often around here any more. What's up with that anyway?
Oh, I got word that the new Laptop is in route! YEA! So it should be here sometime after the 7th or 8th. I got the free shipping, if you know what I mean. Well, enjoy the weather and may God bless you and yours.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
New Ramblings Laptops and Taxes
Wow, that title says alot. Well I have quite a bit I haven't said anything about lately.
I found a donor for a new Laptop! The US Govt., well the IRS to be precise. I don't know about you, but I like tax time. Always have. I struggle through the year, and pay a little bit too much, so that I get a nice refund each spring. I know, I know, you should set your taxes up so you don't have to pay, or get paid so the Govt. doesn't use the interest for free. Well, I have a theory on that. I believe that there's nothing wrong with letting the Government use my money for free for a year! Sorry about all you greedy, bitter people who are more worried about Government waste than you are your own waist. (Both are expanding! HA!) Anyway, I don't mind them getting to use what little extra I pay in a years time, for the ability to have a nice bonus to start each year off with, do you? I've discovered through looking at various interest rates that money would have earned me, and I found out that I have lost no more than 2 dollars a year. That's right, the MOST, I could be giving up is 2 dollars. BIG WHOOPEE! So, for 2 dollars the Govt. holds my money, and processes my paper work, and gives me a nice Check each year. Not a bad deal I don't think. Anyway, I'm getting enough back, along with what I've saved here, there and yonder, to buy a nice laptop. Now if HP would just ship it. :-D. I'll tell ya' about it when it gets here.
The nice thing about the modern age is HTML and XML, and SSL, and all the other L's that make doing your taxes online possible. I tried Turbo tax, and I tried TaxCut. Taxcut will let you run in Linux, if you setup the browser ID to fake being in Windoze. Turbo Tax will allow you to try to get in, but evidently they do something that's very Windows specific this year. Taxcut was very much a pain, very many things changed since last year, and I could never convince it to allow me to remove them. It was trying to get me to file a Schedule C and all that business stuff. However, we never made any money off of any of the business stuff (and didn't spend any in 2006 to make it worth fooling with on taxes) so I just shut the stuff down. Well, Taxcut never asked me if those things were still valid, never asked me how much I made off of them, or anything. However, considering they were in last years TurboTax file, it was determined to error out on it.
So, I go to Turbotax.com (after booting into Windoze YUK) and it works perfectly neting me an extra 500.00 dollars! It allowed me to clear out all the stuff from last year that I didn't want to repeat this year. Needless to say, as soon as the IRS will let me, I'll be e-filing my return and awaiting a direct deposited refund! Gotta love it.
Now, after ordering the New Laptop from HP ( a very nice one at that with [hint] the AMD Dual core TL-60 64 bit proc) I have the misfortune of having to wait. I know, boo hoo. I can hear you now, "you poor slob", "I'm reaching for ya' I just can't get there.", or "I feel your pain". However, I'm not alone in my misery (it does love company you know) my wife is waiting for the hand-me-down crapshiba I'm using now. She's still got full reign over the AMD 3000+ Desktop, with a 19" flat monitor, but now she'll also have this laptop. I don't know how much of a blessing that will be, but if she avoids using firefox 2.0 on Edgy Kubuntu she'll be fine.
By-The-Way: I found out that Firefox 2 is responsible for all the lockups I've had since converting to Edgy and FF2. I've been running Seamonkey for sometime now, and its running without a hitch. (SeaMonkey is Mozilla's latest Browser suite that replaced "Mozilla" proper, and Netscape). The problem is you can't get the Google toolbar to work, or the Forecastfox add-on to work. I really liked both of them. There is some suggestion on the Kubuntu user list that Forecastfox is actually to blame for the lockups which are caused by run away processes. I don't know, 'cause my browser / KDE session would lockup so fast I could never diag the problem. Another problem was that it would lockup so fast that it would never right any error info to any of my logs. That makes it difficult to figure out. Well, everything is fine now. I may try removing forecastfox to see if that helps any. I think forecastfox is a victim of Firefox's poor add-on handling.
Well, anyway that's most of the rambling. I have also found a fairly cool website for IMing in a web browser: Meebo the IM client. Check it out. Its like GAIM for Linux only in a browser.
I found a donor for a new Laptop! The US Govt., well the IRS to be precise. I don't know about you, but I like tax time. Always have. I struggle through the year, and pay a little bit too much, so that I get a nice refund each spring. I know, I know, you should set your taxes up so you don't have to pay, or get paid so the Govt. doesn't use the interest for free. Well, I have a theory on that. I believe that there's nothing wrong with letting the Government use my money for free for a year! Sorry about all you greedy, bitter people who are more worried about Government waste than you are your own waist. (Both are expanding! HA!) Anyway, I don't mind them getting to use what little extra I pay in a years time, for the ability to have a nice bonus to start each year off with, do you? I've discovered through looking at various interest rates that money would have earned me, and I found out that I have lost no more than 2 dollars a year. That's right, the MOST, I could be giving up is 2 dollars. BIG WHOOPEE! So, for 2 dollars the Govt. holds my money, and processes my paper work, and gives me a nice Check each year. Not a bad deal I don't think. Anyway, I'm getting enough back, along with what I've saved here, there and yonder, to buy a nice laptop. Now if HP would just ship it. :-D. I'll tell ya' about it when it gets here.
The nice thing about the modern age is HTML and XML, and SSL, and all the other L's that make doing your taxes online possible. I tried Turbo tax, and I tried TaxCut. Taxcut will let you run in Linux, if you setup the browser ID to fake being in Windoze. Turbo Tax will allow you to try to get in, but evidently they do something that's very Windows specific this year. Taxcut was very much a pain, very many things changed since last year, and I could never convince it to allow me to remove them. It was trying to get me to file a Schedule C and all that business stuff. However, we never made any money off of any of the business stuff (and didn't spend any in 2006 to make it worth fooling with on taxes) so I just shut the stuff down. Well, Taxcut never asked me if those things were still valid, never asked me how much I made off of them, or anything. However, considering they were in last years TurboTax file, it was determined to error out on it.
So, I go to Turbotax.com (after booting into Windoze YUK) and it works perfectly neting me an extra 500.00 dollars! It allowed me to clear out all the stuff from last year that I didn't want to repeat this year. Needless to say, as soon as the IRS will let me, I'll be e-filing my return and awaiting a direct deposited refund! Gotta love it.
Now, after ordering the New Laptop from HP ( a very nice one at that with [hint] the AMD Dual core TL-60 64 bit proc) I have the misfortune of having to wait. I know, boo hoo. I can hear you now, "you poor slob", "I'm reaching for ya' I just can't get there.", or "I feel your pain". However, I'm not alone in my misery (it does love company you know) my wife is waiting for the hand-me-down crapshiba I'm using now. She's still got full reign over the AMD 3000+ Desktop, with a 19" flat monitor, but now she'll also have this laptop. I don't know how much of a blessing that will be, but if she avoids using firefox 2.0 on Edgy Kubuntu she'll be fine.
By-The-Way: I found out that Firefox 2 is responsible for all the lockups I've had since converting to Edgy and FF2. I've been running Seamonkey for sometime now, and its running without a hitch. (SeaMonkey is Mozilla's latest Browser suite that replaced "Mozilla" proper, and Netscape). The problem is you can't get the Google toolbar to work, or the Forecastfox add-on to work. I really liked both of them. There is some suggestion on the Kubuntu user list that Forecastfox is actually to blame for the lockups which are caused by run away processes. I don't know, 'cause my browser / KDE session would lockup so fast I could never diag the problem. Another problem was that it would lockup so fast that it would never right any error info to any of my logs. That makes it difficult to figure out. Well, everything is fine now. I may try removing forecastfox to see if that helps any. I think forecastfox is a victim of Firefox's poor add-on handling.
Well, anyway that's most of the rambling. I have also found a fairly cool website for IMing in a web browser: Meebo the IM client. Check it out. Its like GAIM for Linux only in a browser.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Debian Printing
Now I remember why I left debian in the first place. Printing. I can't get my Brother printer to print now that I've switched to Debian. I'd like to rant all over both Brother (and their crappy support for CUPS printing) and Debian (for their non-standard way of doing things). However, neither is going to help me figure out what to do next. I'm thinking that going back to Kubuntu Edgy would be a really good idea, at least my printing worked there. I switched up my partition scheme to what it should have been for a long time. I partitioned off / from /home so that I can completely change out distros and keep my home dir intact. It'll be a sweet day when Linux can live up to the hype of some, and overcome the hurdles others create.
Well, I'm not sure what to do next, I've removed and reinstalled the drivers from Brother to no avail. My printer lights up like its going to print, and then nothing happens. (Kinda like Curly's "I'm trying to think and nothing happens!). Well, I gotta finish getting ready for tonight, despite being more discouraged for some reason than I've been in a long time.
Well, I'm not sure what to do next, I've removed and reinstalled the drivers from Brother to no avail. My printer lights up like its going to print, and then nothing happens. (Kinda like Curly's "I'm trying to think and nothing happens!). Well, I gotta finish getting ready for tonight, despite being more discouraged for some reason than I've been in a long time.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Swapped Back
Well, crow isn't so bad if you put a little ketchup and salt on it.
I finally had to come back and try Debian SID again. I ran Kubuntu for almost a year, which is a record for me I think. There are things I stand by as far as what I've said about a lot of Debian developers being cry babies. The problem is they make the best darned overall distro out there hands down. Especially if you like KDE. With Novell climbing into bed with Micro$oft, I wasn't about to run anything with "SUSE" in the name. The problem is right when I needed to be paying attention the most, Ardent's mail server decided to go all foobar on the SAN drives. I wound up setting on the phone till about 4 in the morning. Not only that, but due to my lack of pay attention, the whole upgrade I was doing to fiesty fawn went so far south I had to format and start over anyway. So, I decided to download the latest etch netinstall CD and try it out again. I'm going to have to do away with this STUPID "iceweasal" rebranded Firefox browser though, because its just getting on my nerves. There are a lot of places you can't do what you want because they only support "Firefox 2.0.x". The problem is that is EXCACTLY what you're running, but they don't know that. So, I installed a Firefox extension called, "User Agent Switcher". What it does is respond to Web Site Queries about what browser you're running. I had to setup my own "User Agent" because who would have ever thought that you'd run firefox and have to fake out a website so that it would know you were running Firefox? Anyway, here's the settings:
Other than that things are going well. I have Debian up and running, and mighty fine so far. I used dar to restore the greater part of my home directory, along with unison, which I use to keep my home directory synced up to the main PC here at the house. Now that I've gotten weaned off of kdar (a cool graphical utility that the maintainer gave up on) I'm able to do just what I want via command line. I'll script it all out sooner or latter.
Anyway, looking forward to the weekend, even though I have to go to an Executive Board Meeting at 8:30 am tomorrow. YUCK. I hate getting up early on a Saturday.
May God bless your weekend.
I finally had to come back and try Debian SID again. I ran Kubuntu for almost a year, which is a record for me I think. There are things I stand by as far as what I've said about a lot of Debian developers being cry babies. The problem is they make the best darned overall distro out there hands down. Especially if you like KDE. With Novell climbing into bed with Micro$oft, I wasn't about to run anything with "SUSE" in the name. The problem is right when I needed to be paying attention the most, Ardent's mail server decided to go all foobar on the SAN drives. I wound up setting on the phone till about 4 in the morning. Not only that, but due to my lack of pay attention, the whole upgrade I was doing to fiesty fawn went so far south I had to format and start over anyway. So, I decided to download the latest etch netinstall CD and try it out again. I'm going to have to do away with this STUPID "iceweasal" rebranded Firefox browser though, because its just getting on my nerves. There are a lot of places you can't do what you want because they only support "Firefox 2.0.x". The problem is that is EXCACTLY what you're running, but they don't know that. So, I installed a Firefox extension called, "User Agent Switcher". What it does is respond to Web Site Queries about what browser you're running. I had to setup my own "User Agent" because who would have ever thought that you'd run firefox and have to fake out a website so that it would know you were running Firefox? Anyway, here's the settings:
description="Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.1"The last two I just left blank. I thought about adding "Debian" for vender just to mess with folks. :-D But, I decided not to. Anyway, if you add a custom Agent and fill in the parameters with the above, the sites you go to will think you're running Firefox 2.0.0.1 (which you are).
useragent="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061205 Firefox/2.0.0.1 (Debian-2.0.0.1+dfsg-2)"
appname="Firefox" appversion="2.0.0.1 (X11; en-US)"
platform="Linux i686"
vendor=""
vendorsub=""
Other than that things are going well. I have Debian up and running, and mighty fine so far. I used dar to restore the greater part of my home directory, along with unison, which I use to keep my home directory synced up to the main PC here at the house. Now that I've gotten weaned off of kdar (a cool graphical utility that the maintainer gave up on) I'm able to do just what I want via command line. I'll script it all out sooner or latter.
Anyway, looking forward to the weekend, even though I have to go to an Executive Board Meeting at 8:30 am tomorrow. YUCK. I hate getting up early on a Saturday.
May God bless your weekend.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Bye Bye Sugar Coating
Well, I've been preaching this kind of stuff for years. I have long believed that you CAN NOT win a soul to Christ using the flesh! A person will not be won to the Spirit after having the flesh appealed to first!! Why do I say that? Because for years now the SBC (at least the TBC) in their "Youth Evangelism Conferences" have used "Christian Rock" or "Contemporary" music to attract young people. Well, I read in the December 15, 2006 The Sword of the Lord an Article with the following Headline:
The Summary of that article was to enforce the idea that true Bible Based Worship, was what gets kids, adults, women, men, boys and girls, into Church, and its what keeps them there! God centered Churches are what we need, NOT seeker friendly, or man centered Churches! I'm not here to please men, I'm here to please Christ!
The problem I have now is that there are those who are wrapped up in their sin of selfishness, and pride who will refuse to accept these facts regardless of what the Bible says, and facts show. They'll point to the very few who keep attending Church to "prove" they are right. I remember way back, before I went to Bible College, I left the TBC's (Tennessee Baptist Convention) Youth Evangelism Conference and swore to never return because it was nothing more than a Rock Concert with a little bit of Jesus sprinkled on to make it look good! Why? Because while the hectic music was playing I saw all manner of godless behavior, and NO worship coming from the youth attending, and because as soon as the preaching started, they became restless and uninterested. Imagine that? If the music was what those who push it on us say it is, WHY does it not draw these young people to a full commitment to Christ? I have long held that music should move your heart to bow before God, to praise His greatness, and think of all His benefits as the Psalms tell us. I have also used as a guide to the music I listen to, the Bible. If a song isn't Biblical in its message, its of the Devil I don't care if Billy Graham sings it himself!
Finally let me finish with one more Quote from Dr. Shelton Smith of the Sword:
"Compromised Youth Ministries Now Admit Failure"Imagine that? The first half of the article is a quote from Christianpost.com's article quoting Time's "IN Touch with Jesus" for November 6, 2006. whew, that was a chain to follow. Anyway, I finally find out that I'm not alone in my stand against Christianizing the World's music!!! Sorry, but I lived the Rock-n-Roll scene for real, AC/DC, Journey, Motley Crue, etc. etc. concerts, the whole nine yards. I have always held to the FACT that you cannot convert something of the world and call it Christian without putting it through the fire, melting it, and remolding it. THIS is exactly what modern Christianity has failed to do with Rock Music. Had they put it through the Fire of God's Word, they'd find out from its history, and its layout (the beat) that it is NOT healthy, spiritually or physically. The Word of God COMMANDS us to come out from among the World, NOT make friends with them, or appeal to their flesh in competition with worldly pursuits!! I especially appreciated this part from the Editor of The Sword of the Lord,
Over the past few decades churches by the thousands have caved in to the pressure of the culture. They compromised their values and capitulated to "what kids want." What they wanted was entertainment, a good time, fun and games, rock music, no work, no demands and certainly no standards. Now they are forced to "fess up" to their failure. The churches went along, and so did the kids (for a while).So, now does anyone believe me? Those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will. Because they are more worried about glorifying Christ than they are about putting up good numbers for the associational report letter!!
The Summary of that article was to enforce the idea that true Bible Based Worship, was what gets kids, adults, women, men, boys and girls, into Church, and its what keeps them there! God centered Churches are what we need, NOT seeker friendly, or man centered Churches! I'm not here to please men, I'm here to please Christ!
The problem I have now is that there are those who are wrapped up in their sin of selfishness, and pride who will refuse to accept these facts regardless of what the Bible says, and facts show. They'll point to the very few who keep attending Church to "prove" they are right. I remember way back, before I went to Bible College, I left the TBC's (Tennessee Baptist Convention) Youth Evangelism Conference and swore to never return because it was nothing more than a Rock Concert with a little bit of Jesus sprinkled on to make it look good! Why? Because while the hectic music was playing I saw all manner of godless behavior, and NO worship coming from the youth attending, and because as soon as the preaching started, they became restless and uninterested. Imagine that? If the music was what those who push it on us say it is, WHY does it not draw these young people to a full commitment to Christ? I have long held that music should move your heart to bow before God, to praise His greatness, and think of all His benefits as the Psalms tell us. I have also used as a guide to the music I listen to, the Bible. If a song isn't Biblical in its message, its of the Devil I don't care if Billy Graham sings it himself!
Finally let me finish with one more Quote from Dr. Shelton Smith of the Sword:
Youth groups that are entertainment based are destined to fail. Kids need to get a steady diet of Bible teaching and strong preaching with an emphasis on Scripture, salvation, sanctification, separation, standards, soul winning and the surrendered life!Amen.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Sundays Good, Mondays bad.
I love the weekend. It has Saturday, which is my general purpose only real day off. It also has Sunday The real first day of the week, Church day, and football day (If you like to watch football). Anyway, today was our Church's Business meeting and we scheduled out our Valentine banquette, Vacation Bible School, and Revival. The Revival is especially interesting to me, because I've been mulling over setting it up as a Bible Conference, where you have a different preacher each night, and either leave it up to God, or assign them topics, or Bible passages (Like a book of the Bible, etc.) and then turn them loose. I really liked the ones I have attended, and since our last Associational Crusade, its really been on my heart. The dates are for the Revival the week of the 15th of July through the friday of that week, and for Vacation Bible School, it starts June 11th and goes through Friday of that week. I'm really looking forward to both. Before I go to bed I'm going to update the schedule and the Web Site for the Church.
Oh, today was my Sister's 39th Birthday, hehehehe. Not that I would tell you how old she is or anything. I try to call her every year, or go see her, but today being Sunday going to see her was out.
Well, that's a short one for today. I'll post more later.
Oh, today was my Sister's 39th Birthday, hehehehe. Not that I would tell you how old she is or anything. I try to call her every year, or go see her, but today being Sunday going to see her was out.
Well, that's a short one for today. I'll post more later.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Kubuntu Breakdown
Well, it appears that my work was in vain, or worse. It seems that now, whenever I come out of hibernation my PC just forgets how to access the hard drive. It will slowly begin to lock up, and then eventually get to the point of being so hosed, that I have to power it off! The problem is that now, I don't even have to come out of hibernation, as it could do it any time. I got so frustrated just before new years because I had just finished balancing my checkbook in KMymoney, and the whole system seized up when I clicked the "save" button. ARGGGHH! I had to go through the whole process again later. I never had this problem with the ReiserFS, but now it seems to be very regular with ext3. What gives?
Anyway, I'm looking at putting another distro on here just because I want to try another one. Actually If I could get someone to donate about 2,000.00 dollars I'd get me a new laptop :-D! Yea, I know, that'll never happen. However, as soon as I can get off this lousy Toshiba Crapillite the better. (Oh, did I tell you I can't stand Toshiba's laptops?).
On another note, I discovered yesterday that my license plate was 3 months out of date!! I've been driving my truck around on expired tags since September! So, I went to the downtown location to get my tags renewed, found out they are still in the 60's and only take cash or check, so I had to go find an ATM. So, now I'm kinda like Kevin in Home Alone, "I"m not afraid any more!"
As you may know I work with Ardent Health here in Nashville. We just got in some shiny new P590's from IBM. We're going to put our AIX systems on those things, running most in HA mode. The problem I have is they want to put TSM on them as well, and I'm not real keen on that idea. Its not that I don't trust the 590s, or whatever, its just that I think it puts too many eggs in that basket. I've always run TSM as isolated from the systems it backs up as possible, maybe having the TSM box in the same rack would be about as close as I've ever gotten to that kind of thing (and I didn't really like that much). I don't know, maybe I'm just a little paranoid, but it just doesn't seem wise to me. Well, I'll go with it if I have to, but what I'm lobbying for is a couple of mid to high end Series X servers with Linux running on them. I think if we could use hardware thats easy to obtain, and an OS thats easy to setup, our DR could start much faster in the field. We have a get together scheduled tomorrow so we can hash out who's going to do what this year. We'll see what we run up against there. I've heard of folks running TSM on Windows servers with it all tied into the same AD tree. How crazy can you get? I mean if a virus gets in and attacks your environment, your TSM server is going up in smoke right along with the rest of your Windoze servers. No, I believe your TSM system, or whatever backup system, should be isolated from the systems its meant to protect. If you need to restore, you don't need the headache. I mean think about it, how will you restore parts of your AD tree if you can't get into TSM because the AD tree is down? Sounds foolish but take a minute, you'll get it. Oh, I'm a Certified Directory Engineer, so I know you can get the AD up enough to do what you need, but why? When you can run TSM on the same x86 hardware with Linux, and cut your DR time in half!
So, anyway that's my rambling for today.
Anyway, I'm looking at putting another distro on here just because I want to try another one. Actually If I could get someone to donate about 2,000.00 dollars I'd get me a new laptop :-D! Yea, I know, that'll never happen. However, as soon as I can get off this lousy Toshiba Crapillite the better. (Oh, did I tell you I can't stand Toshiba's laptops?).
On another note, I discovered yesterday that my license plate was 3 months out of date!! I've been driving my truck around on expired tags since September! So, I went to the downtown location to get my tags renewed, found out they are still in the 60's and only take cash or check, so I had to go find an ATM. So, now I'm kinda like Kevin in Home Alone, "I"m not afraid any more!"
As you may know I work with Ardent Health here in Nashville. We just got in some shiny new P590's from IBM. We're going to put our AIX systems on those things, running most in HA mode. The problem I have is they want to put TSM on them as well, and I'm not real keen on that idea. Its not that I don't trust the 590s, or whatever, its just that I think it puts too many eggs in that basket. I've always run TSM as isolated from the systems it backs up as possible, maybe having the TSM box in the same rack would be about as close as I've ever gotten to that kind of thing (and I didn't really like that much). I don't know, maybe I'm just a little paranoid, but it just doesn't seem wise to me. Well, I'll go with it if I have to, but what I'm lobbying for is a couple of mid to high end Series X servers with Linux running on them. I think if we could use hardware thats easy to obtain, and an OS thats easy to setup, our DR could start much faster in the field. We have a get together scheduled tomorrow so we can hash out who's going to do what this year. We'll see what we run up against there. I've heard of folks running TSM on Windows servers with it all tied into the same AD tree. How crazy can you get? I mean if a virus gets in and attacks your environment, your TSM server is going up in smoke right along with the rest of your Windoze servers. No, I believe your TSM system, or whatever backup system, should be isolated from the systems its meant to protect. If you need to restore, you don't need the headache. I mean think about it, how will you restore parts of your AD tree if you can't get into TSM because the AD tree is down? Sounds foolish but take a minute, you'll get it. Oh, I'm a Certified Directory Engineer, so I know you can get the AD up enough to do what you need, but why? When you can run TSM on the same x86 hardware with Linux, and cut your DR time in half!
So, anyway that's my rambling for today.
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