Another Opinion Among Many

Actually, I’m referring to this site. I see with Internet Explorer, here at work (the browser that Macbros blatantly insists that I upgrade from on every visit to his site from work), that the header and body of the page seem to be squished together a bit, showing only the top half of the links between. Is this happening for anyone else? This only happened since we upgraded the center’s computers with the latest patched version of Windows.

At home, the page renders as intended (except that my monitor is getting old and everything is getting darker and darker) on IE6, Firefox2.2, and Opera10 on Windows and also fine in Konqueror, Firefox, and Opera on PCLinuxOS, Gentoo (no Opera), Debian, and Kubuntu.

If you see this behavior and you know how to fix it, I’d like to know. I know its gotta be an IE hack, but I’m not to well versed on them (I barely can code to standard, let alone to non-standard, oppressive, restricted proprietary code).

fixed.  see comments for details. kludgy.  blech

I was looking around the net to see what has been said about this year’s early change to Daylight Savings Time (DST) in the United States (US) and found this CNN.com article.  I clicked on a link to view a video and it actually played! The last time that I checked any rich media on the CNN site (or anything simple like page navigation for that matter), I was advised that I needed to upgrade my Windows Media Player before viewing the video.  That’s not a simple task on Linux, as you have to have a licensed copy of Microsoft Windows and have installed WINE and the flaky Windows Media Player under emulation.  Then, you have to get your browser configured to play media with this hacked emulation.  That’s too much.

So, the video played with the mplayer plugin.  This should be the case anyhow, as mplayer is one of the best all around players out there.  Its Windows GUI could use some work, but it still outplays most other players, as it handles almost any codec.   The CNN website merely said that the video was optimized for Media Player 9 and that they couldn’t determine my version, but that I could go ahead and watch if I wanted.  Right on.  The complaints worked (’m sure that I wasn’t the only one who wrote to the webmaster about their lack of accessibility).  Cheers, CNN.  Now about your news reporting…

If you would, go join the 25,000+ petitioners who want decent Linux drivers written for their new ATI cards. I have. On a related note, if any Windows users out there who have an NVidia card that’s comparable to the Radeon 9500 Pro, who would like to trade, as they love ATI, I am willing to discuss it.

Windows+ATI=good

Linux+NVidia=good

I recently installed Sabayon Linux on one of my hard drives. The advantage of collecting old, unwanted computer parts is that you can sometimes end up with a few HDs out of the deal. They’re not going to be very large, of course, so that’s the drawback. I got into the myriad of applications and configurations possible and it became apparent that there’s a new breed of desktop on the horizon (Windows Vista has a hint of something new as well) that will not be constrained to 2 dimensions.

Sabayon is the first Live CD distribution of GNU/Linux to include AIGLX/XGL accelleration and the Beryl windowmanager, as well as the close-source proprietary drivers for the newer ATI and NVidia cards.

The rubbery, bouncy windows were cool to experience as was the “cube” desktop environment and the polish of the Sabayon project’s visuals was flawless. However, my Radeon 9500 Pro was detected and the proprietary ATI fglrx driver was loaded. Unfortunately, the proprietary driver is not compatible with the AIGLX accelleration, so the slower,memory-intensive XGL accelleration method was paired with it. I don’t know if this was an issue or not, but Beryl running with3D applications was flakey at best. I have other issues with Sabayon, but, as new user, I am going to give it a try and any strangeness that I find, I will report to the maintainers or forum for resolution, as this distro shows great promise.

When I was trying to troubleshoot my computer’s behavior, I came across quite a few HOWTO’s relating to Ubuntu, so I thought that I’d give Beryl a try on my Kubuntu installation, as there seemed to be a lot more out there in the search engine results regarding the use of AIGLX and Beryl on ATI cards.  I got DRI working fine with the  free Radeon driver in X.org 7.1 and followed a tutorial from the Ubuntu forum on enabling AIGLX and getting Beryl.  I must say that the claims seem to be true.  AIGLX is far more responsive and “lighter” than XGL.  I haven’t done any movies of the effects, but there are several YouTube videos on the things that Beryl can do.  Try this one.  Its pretty cool.

Now, I’ve got an operating system installed on my jumble of spare parts that has become a computer of sorts (still need a sound card and way more RAM).  Its running Gentoo Linux.  Are you surprised? I didn’t even try to do the Windows thing (as that would require another licence, right?…).  Now I tried Ubuntu, which ran but was a tad slow.  And, I’ve never really gotten used to Gnome as an interface.  It doesn’t do what I want it to do in a reasonable and ergonomic way.  I think that its the tools, as the concept is solid.  The Damn Small Linux latest live CD seemed to work, but I’ve never really gotten used to the VESA X-Server that it uses and trying to make it into a reasonable Debian system with the necessary unsupported packages to make my computer fun, was just looking like too much work.

Kubuntu was just too overloaded for 128MB RAM and it wasn’t going to install.  It should have a reduced, low RAM version of the installer so that it can be installed on lesser systems.  What happened to the OS that actually installed on a P-III?

So, I was brought full circle back to Gentoo.  I’ve not had this wonderful and frustrating OS installed on my computer for a long time (nearly a year, I think).  The thing is that, even with the new graphical installer from a Live-CD (while surfing the net with memory-hog Firefox), I had a full Gnome desktop (yes, I said Gnome) within a few hours.  I’ve removed most of the remnants and replaced with KDE, but I’m still finding cool apps every day.  Emerging ccache and using it to cache some of the gcc compilation seems to have speeded up the compilation by a lot, as well.

I used the 2006.1 Live CD to install and I must say that its getting to be a good tool if you want to do a graphical installation, or run from a Live CD, like many other good “working” distros, like SimplyMepis or PCLinuxOS.  If I get to it, I’ll fill this post with a pile of links, for those who are too lazy to use Google or Yahoo! search.

Looks like Microsoft has presented Internet Explorer 7 to the world now. Its on the Automatic Updatelist. Time for web designers to start looking at how their pages will look in it.

If you have a notification that your browser will be updated, read the info on it first. Always read about the updates. Always.

If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, “Who’s on first?” might have turned out something like this:
COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT.

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks. I’m setting up an office in my den and I’m thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name’s Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don’t own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name’s Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don’t know. What will I see when I look at the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.

COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let’s just say I’m sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue “W.”

COSTELLO: I’m going to click your blue “w” if you don’t start with some straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?

ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One.

COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your business. Just tell me what I need!

ABBOTT: Real One.

COSTELLO: If it’s a long movie, I also want to watch reels 2, 3 and 4. Can I watch them?

ABBOTT: Of course.

COSTELLO: Great! With what?

ABBOTT: Real One.

COSTELLO: OK, I’m at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do?

ABBOTT: You click the blue “1.”

COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?

ABBOTT: The blue “1.”

COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue w?

ABBOTT: The blue “1″ is Real One and the blue “W” is word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: But there are three words in “office for windows!”

ABBOTT: No, just one. But it’s the most popular Word in the world.

COSTELLO: It is?

ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren’t many other Words left. It pretty much wiped out all the other Words out there.

COSTELLO: And that word is real one?

ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real one isn’t even part of Office.

COSTELLO: STOP! Don’t start that again. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That’s right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What’s bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

ABBOTT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn’t it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

(A few days later)

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

ABBOTT: Click on “START”…

If this is your work, let me know so that I can attribute it to you. And if you aren’t writing comedy for a living, you should start!