New toys
Mood:  chatty
Topic: computers
Just got a new 160 GB harddrive with my "thank you points" from my credit card. The sucker took around four hours to format, but it's up and running and I've been able to move a bunch of files onto there, saving my music hard drive for music and also being able have a lot more space for my photography. Since I now have two 512 mb cards for my camera, I can potentially download 1 GB per session if I completely fill up my camera. Since I only had 3 GB left on that hard drive, I was able to move my pictures over.

Then I took one of my other hard drives and connected it with my Linux box. I learned how to format a hard drive for Linux and also how to make it available for use. So I'm glad I went through that process since I'll be building a Linux computer from scratch in the future. It's exciting and I love technology and stuff like that!

a few things....
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: "Rocket Town" - Brave Saint Saturn
Topic: computers
Recently my Windows computer was going a little slowly due to some RAM intensive programs I had open. I took a look and all I had left was 30 MB of RAM! I was really ticked because my computer, while nearly 4 years old, was almost top of the line when I bought it. As a test I loaded up Windows from scratch and checked how much RAM it had taken up. Over 256 (or half of my computer's RAM) had been taken up by Windows, Norton, and the other necessary programs for my printer and whatnot. On my Linux computer I'm using Fedora which is one of the more RAM intensive distrobutions, and it loads up only taking up 120 MB! This is half of what Windows takes up. I can't wait until I build my 4 GB Linux computer - it's going to run so awesome!

I recently got an email for Sims 2: University which said that if I pre-order the game, I can get $5 off a future Sims family game. I guess this means that they already have plans for the next add-on. Although, I understand their business model, it would sure be nice if they would build more into each expansion pack instead of making us buy 7 other games in order to make Sims 2 all it could be.

Yesterday I discovered the video codec Xvid. This is an opensource MPEG-4 codec that embodies the movement I have recently chosen to become a part of - the open source movement. Although I don't know the ramifications of a true software economy based upon open source software (it only previously existed in the very early years of computing, but computers were crappy back then), I do know that I like the principles of open source software.

First of all, it empowers poor countries so that they can rise up to our technological level. Instead of being left behind because they can't afford expensive copies of Win XP, they can get open source software for free. (Software is, after all, a large part of the price paid for new computers - the components barely cost anything) It also allows college students, such as myself, to be able to afford to have the lastest and best software.

Second, it encourages better software development because the source code is available for all those who wish to improve upon it.

Third, don't like where your software provider is going? Wish you could build option X into MS Word? You can't! That's illegal! In the open source world you just create a spin-off. Many Linux distrobutions are spin-offs of others with different purposes. For example, don't like the fact that Fedora comes with MP3 support disabled? Take the Fedora source code, enable MP3 support, and make your own distro. The latest Yellow Dog Linux distrobution is based upon Fedora Core 2.

But back to Xvid - it's basically an open source version of the Divx codec. In order to use Divx (such as in the Warcraft games) because of its awesome compression abilities, you have to pay a licensing fee to Divx. Also, the code is closed so you can't make changes to it. Xvid, is the complete opposite.

Well, I believe so much in the open source movement that when I relaunch my server in Sept/Nov of this year, I will host Linux distrobutions for people to download.

Finally, you may notice more links in my post today. I'm trying (whenever I remember) to provide links to what I'm talking about so that you can find out more about it if you wish to do so.

Linux Kicks @$$
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: "Andrea" - MxPx
Topic: computers
So, want to throw off the oppressive yoke that Bill Gates has on you? "yeah!" you say enthusiastically, "but I don't want a Mac. No one makes programs for them and they are VERY expensive." No problem! Linux is cheap; free, in fact! Well, the computer isn't free, but it CAN be cheap. Let me explain...

As you have learned in either a HS or College level economics class, it's bad for a company to have a monopoly. Why? Because they don't have competition therefore they get lazy and stop trying to hard. Internet Explorer, for example, hasn't has too many major updates since Netscape bit the dust. Well, since Windows has pretty much been unchallenged for 14+ years, they feel that they can do whatever they want. This includes having a bloated OS and programs that hog all of your memory. I have 512 Mb of RAM and Windows complains if I have too many Office applications open.

Enter Linux:

This humble OS was born from the mind of Linus Torvalds. His basic mission evolved into desgining an operating system that was completely free. This doesn't just mean free in the monetary sense. He wanted the license to be as open as possible so that you could install it on as many computers as you wanted. Did you know, for example, that it's illegal for you to put MS Office on more than one computer with one disc unless it's a multi-license disc? Not so with Linux! You can install it on the computer of everyone who lives on your block and you can't get in trouble with the law.

Because Linux isn't as bloated as Windows, it can typically run on an older machine. You can go all the way to a 386 with 64 Mb of RAM if you want. If you want to have an AWESOME computer, get 4 GHz 1 GB RAM and put Linux on it. You'll be amazed at how cleanly and quickly it runs.

Now, Linux comes in different flavors, called distrobutions. They are known by those who are really into Linux as "distros". Some examples are Debian, SuseLinux, Fedora, and SELinux. Each has different good things and bad things. Some are better for sound and others for servers. Since they are free you can try them all until you find the right one for you.

The best thing about Linux is that most distrobutions come with free license programs that do everything that Windows programs do. For example, there is OpenOffice that does the same thing as MS Office. There is a spreadsheet, a word processor, a powerpoint-clone, and an email/calendar program. There are other numerous examples - basically, anything that Windows can do, MS can do better. Certain things are built into the operating system, such as CD burning (which was only added to Win with XP)and you can do cool stuff such as tell a file to burn to CD as soon as it downloads off the net.

Finally, you have the advantage and cool power of running programs from the command line. It's one of those things that you have to try to know what I'm talking about.

But, there ARE some disadvantages. First of all, not all hardware works with Linux. They are trying their hardest to make hardware work with it, but Windows has an advantage. You see the hardware manufacturers tell Microsoft how to make Windows work with their software. The other disadvantage is that it's hard to get help if you need it because most people aren't using Linux yet. But you can find a lot of info on < href=www.google.com/linux>www.google.com/linux or in IRC chatrooms.

So you want to try out this awesome OS? Not so fast! You see, unless you have two hard drives (in which case you could have one OS on each drive and pick the one u want when u boot up) you can only really have one OS. So having Linux means erasing Windows. Now you're like...well...what if I don't like Linux? Well, it's ok because there's a version of Linux just for you. It's called Knoppix. Knoppix is a version of Linux that completely runs off of the CD instead of installing it. This allows you to try out Linux without the commitment of losing Windows. The only thing is that you can only save to floppy or USB. Then if you like it you can tell Bill Gates where to stick Windows. You can get Knoppix here -> www.knoppix.net

PS - Linux tends to be very friendly on being used in different languages - much better than Windows

mozilla or IE? the battle is ON!
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: "I taste just like Candy" - Foxy Brown
Topic: computers
Well, on the ACCEL computers at school I've been using Mozilla Firefox for the entire semester. After reading an article that drew my attention to the fact that IE remained stagnant while other browsers were evolving I decided that I'd install it on my machine. I was using the internet when the first browser wars were going on and I remember that every few months either Netscape or MS would release new updates to their browsers. It was a very exciting time. Then MS won, and it ended for a while. But now, others are starting to make a comeback. I'll use Firefox for a week or so. If I like it better than IE, she gets to stay. If not, then I kick her to the curb and go back to trusty, if decadent IE. There IS one thing that I like a lot more in Firefox - tabbed browsing. It's the reason why I downloaded Netscape 7.1. But for some reason Netscape doesn't know how to view a few pages made for IE where Firefox has no problem. So Netscape is just "collecting dust" in the e-version of the term because I haven't used it in ages. I also like the toolbar that isn't just google, or yahoo, or MSN. It's all of them - you just click on a button to change. I just used dictionary.com's toolbar to double-check that "decadent" meant what I remembered it meaning. Yeah, I could just go to dictionary.com and search for it, but it's such a CPU cycle saver for it to already be at the right page. I don't need to waste my time loading up the main page if I don't have to. That's why I've been using the "run" command in windows o launch web pages instead of loading up the content-heavy MSN.com. Tune in to see who wins...

Test it yourself by getting Firefox @ http://www.mozilla.com

(Hopefully this week with Fall Break I can catch up with my school work and do some more substantial blogging)