Linux Update

When I moved what was my monster work PC into the living room to act as a media center PC, I lost the system to drive my printer. This meant that it was very difficult for me to print anything. I would often need to drag a laptop into the office and hook it up to the printer on an ad-hoc basis. I didn't want to move the printer into the living room, so I had to think how I was going to handle this. I decided to rebuild my old work PC that had been disassembled and reconstitute it as a Linux box/print server. So, I downloaded the Lucid Lynx (the most recent Ubuntu release) and went to work.

Oh my goodness!

I was first introduced to Linux back in 1995 with the Slackware distro. This was extremely rough around the edges and installation would take a very long time. I've tried several other distros since then and while I could do them, I found them rough enough that it was hard to recommend.

The most recent Ubuntu release changes that.

The installation was arguably easier and faster than Windows 7 was. Starting out, I provided a few details (password, Timezone, etc) that I would provide to Windows and clicked "Install". Thirty minutes later, I had a fully working Linux system that had recognized my immense HD monitor over a VGA connection and found my printer with no prompting from me.

This intrigued me, so I stuck the live CD into my Vaio laptop and booted. Much to my surprise, it had FOUND the RAID configuration and easily read the disk array.

I would say that (except for how to reset the sudo password) that Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx is ready for primetime. It is a powerful and simple to use OS that I could recommend to anyone, regardless of skill.

If you want to try it out (and are running either a PC or Intel Mac), grab the Lucid Lynx LiveCD and boot it up. You can try it out WITHOUT changing anything on your system. If you don't like it, extract the CD and reboot back into your OS of choice. Its safe, secure, easy, and incredibly fast (Bender boots in about 20 seconds instead of the 1-2 minutes it did in Windows XP). Unless you need iTunes because of DRM (DoubleTwist works if you don't have DRM content) or Windows for Computer Games, its an OS you should look at.

Fresh Blog Paint

With the coming of new games in which I'm interested (hopefully more grabbing than Champions was), new paint at home, and a slightly improving life balance, I decided to do some blog tweaking. Some of this is experimenting with new blogger features and some compensating for poor posting habits.

First, notice that I added a Twitter gadget. I use Twitter to update Facebook and Google Buzz, so you wont see anything new there if you follow me on Facebook or Buzz. Another interesting social networking tidbit, is that about a day after I post on this blog, a notification will show up on my Twitter/Facebook/Buzz feed.

Secondly, I updated the listing of RSS posts. I put in more links to Star Wars: The Old Republic, and removed other links to make the site more gamey (ha!).

These changes should make the blog a little more interesting to visit even if I've not posted in a while.

I've done a few other tweaks including adding a series of links about SW:tOR (no, this isn't becoming an Old Republic blog, I'm just really excited), removing ads (they were an experiment too), adding a dynamic list of the many podcasts to which I listen, and general shuffling of stuffs.

Like the look? Let me know what you think - comments are eternally welcome!

Stuff about Star Wars: The Old Republic From E3!

As many of you know, I'm really jonesing for the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO from Bioware. I'm sure that many would say obsessed, I know I would.

Here are some nifty links of revealed information! I'm not going to write it all down, but suffice it to say, you will learn a LOT if you read...

• The official SW:tOR link about E3 info.
• And there is a TON of stuff over at Darth Hater

Yes, there are only 2 links here, but there is enough content here (especially with the Darth Hater Link) to keep you involved for a few HOURS. IF YOU ONLY HAVE TIME TO SKIM, YOU WON'T GET ALL THE INFO!

Now, to figure out how I will cram this game into my schedule!

Rock Band 3 - ITS ABOUT TIME!!!!

And yes, I would buy a guitar for this - I'd probably need to buy a console.

The Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster is a fully functional, full-sized, six-string electric guitar that also functions as a game controller that Fender and Harmonix have teamed up to develop.

Heh, I'd get to Rock out on CRAZY TRAIN!



*EDIT* IT WILL BE AVAILABLE ON THE WII! I OWN THAT ONE!
*EDIT 2* A real keyboard with a MIDI attachment! OMG! I now know what I can do with my life if I won the lottery!