Melvin's blog

I've been playing, experimenting and testing with Jaunty since alpha 4 and I have to tell you, this is what the Ubuntu project needed! It's a dream come true for me. My extreme anti Linux Laptop, an Acer Aspire 5050-5410 boots automatically! Without having to type "exit" in the busybox screen of death. But that doesn't mean it boots fast. I hangs for a while in "starting up..." after like 30 to 45 seconds the uSplash appears and then the system boots.

Compiz works out of the box, Wifi is supposed to work but I haven't tested it yet, but it already includes the drivers, so it has to work. The only problem I faced in Alpha 4 was that the touch pad didn't work, but I plugged my USB mouse and downloaded the Synaptics driver and it works like a charm.

I've upgraded to Alpha 5 and everything is heading the right direction and it's getting super stable. At least on the laptop Alpha 5 is stable as a rock. I hope Jaunty works with the laptop when it releases, because Intrepid Beta worked, but the final release gave me all the Busybox headaches and never worked as expected (they should have called it Intrepid Slowpoke).

Now to the other machine, a Gateway GT 5676, AMD Phenom Quad Core, SATA HDDs, ATI Radeon HD3200 graphics 4 Gigs of RAM.

Intrepid Gave more problems than any other Ubuntu version. It was slow, I couldn't browse the Internet while listening to music because the prossesor would get to 100% in a matter of miliseconds and then to 10-15% (which is the normal percentage) and that kind of hanged the system, the music skipped, videos skipped as well, if I was scrolling a page it skipped too, you get the picture... it was hell!!! Oh did I mention that I had to turn off Compiz in order to watch videos on my HDD and some formats on the net? If I didn't turn off Compiz the video screen would flicker. I searched the forums and discovered the Gstreamer Properties, then all Hell broke loose, and it got worse!. Tried re-installing, same crap again.

Then I went back to my trusty 8.04.2, super stable, faster, no flickering screens, I could listen to music and do everything I always do on my PC without a hassle. T

oday I installed on a small partition Jaunty just to see how it works on my desktop PC. First of all it boots extremely fast, it's jaw dropping in comparison to Hardy and Intrepid. The new login screen is very cool, I don't like the 3d Ubuntu Logo too much, but the rest is very awesome and I know many artist will use that layout to make new and better looking GDM screens.

I can't tell you how fast Jaunty's Gnome is on my PC bacause the video drivers are way back there and they haven't caught up with X yet, so everything is very slow video wise. But windows open fine and all that stuff. Hopefully soon I'll be able to use Jaunty is an usable environment and will write about it's performance desktop wise. Until now I know it boots very fast.


Update: Ooops I forgot to mention that the internet feel snappier. Fire fox scrolls smoother and heavy sites are handled better. Google reader flies in Jaunty, it's great!

Funny, but I never thought I would be writing this any time soon. Has anyone seen a Windows 7 screeshot? In my opinion (and many other opinions) the Windows 7 theme is a KDE 4 rip-off. Yes it is indeed. Look at this screenshots from kde-look.org

Oxyglass

Glassified

Now compare 7 beta

Notice the new 7 taskbar? It's almost the same as KDE 4's taskbar! Even the colors they chose for the default wallpaper!

This is funny. In fact it demonstrates that Linux is slowly, but painfully crushing Windows. I think 7 is going to be a bit better than Vista, but it's kernel is still Vista's kernel so it means it runs like Vista, eats your system resources it still get V.I.S.T.A.(viruses, intruders, spyware, trojans, adware). Linux gets none of those and costs you $0.

I've read that 7 is easy to install, easier than Linux. But the question is, how many of you have installed Windows or any other OS before? Not many of you. Take for example Ubuntu, it's so easy to install that you only need to log in to your Windows machine, pop in your Ubuntu live CD and install it like any other Window app, restart and you'll find the option to use either Windows or Ubuntu. 7 can't do that.

Another thing is the "new" command line that has been for years in Windows but never spotlighted. Linux's command line has always been there and has always been the best command line interface, period.

All this new taskbar, command line and netbook "friendliness" seems very, very Linux like. We the Linux community are changing and will change the computer world forever, yes us the minority.

Check this out for more info:
Computer World

Maximum PC

Network World-Why Windows 7 will crush Linux

Network World-Why Windows 7 will never kill off Linux

ZD Net-Windows 7 as "Linux Killer"? How times have changed!

As you can read in the last post I use Linux as my OS. I was running PCLinuxOS which is a great distribution, but it has some problems (at least on my box) that made me get rid of it. It crashed too much and Opera wasn't running very well, especially with flash content. I think that all these problems were because of me and not the OS (except the Opera part) but I just got dissapointed and got rid of it.

I had a smaller HDD running Ubuntu 7.10 a few months ago just to try it. I liked it, I liked it very much and I ran it for a few weeks ocassionally. One day the HDD got messed up because it was very old or something, I tried to fix it, but I couldn't so I got it out of the PC. I got mad at the HDD because I wanted more Ubuntu, but heck, what can I do?

Back on PCLinux. PCLinux has some features better than Ubuntu, like the PCLinuxOS Control Center for example. There, you can setup all the hardware and everything related to the OS in one single place. That's very good, because in Ubuntu you have to go to System > Administration and look in the menu for what you're looking for, or System > Preferences > _______. That's a lot of work and can be confusing sometimes. That's one key feature that I really miss from PCLos. Also PCLinux runs KDE way better than Ubuntu does, hands down.

What really made me make the jump from PCLinux was the hype behind the newlly released Ubuntu 8.04. I was counting the days of it's arrival and I was in their website at 12am refreshing the browser the day it launched hoping to see it's release. A few days later I decided to install Ubuntu 7.10 on my PC because I have the cd. So I did it, I kissed PCLinux goodbye (for a while) and went on with the installation of 7.10. It went smooth as silk and then I upgraded everything and made the jump to Ubuntu 8.04. I started using it and fell in love with it instantly. Then I downloaded Opera 9.5 beta 2 and saw the incredible performance in Ubuntu. I haven't seen Opera run like this in a while. It just runs perfect.

Ubuntu feels like it was meant to run on my box, I've been running it for a week now and I've encoutered 0 crashes, bugs etc. It's like my dream OS. It's beautiful, super fast, solid, has a ton of software and runs Compiz Fusion very, very smooth, way better than PCLos.

Well it's getting late for me and I have to sleep. I just wanted to let you know my experience with Ubuntu in my computer. It may be different in yours, so if you're a Linux user I suggest you try a few distros before deciding which one is for you. Until now Ubuntu 8.04 is my favorite OS of all time (until something better comes along).


If I would score these distrios it would be something like this:

Ubuntu 8.04 9.25/10 - Almost perfect
PCLinuxOS 8/10 - Very, very good



Good night.

Most people don't know the power of music. Music has the power of changing a person's attitude in just a few seconds. Before I met Christ music was my shelter. I remember when I was mad at something or someone I just had to insert a record in my stereo and play it. It was the only way to escape my reality and my problems. Now I realize I was a coward, I was trying to escape from my problems trough the wrong door.

I still love music and I know I can't live without music, but I don't use it to escape anymore. Now music is a passion in my life, but it's not an idol. Jesus was the door I was looking for. He was the answer I was searching for. I just didn't knew it at the time. I was a music prisioner, maybe you too, or you are an alcohol prisioner, drugs, porn etc. Many people try to fill their hearts with things that can't fill it. It's like when you're trying to figure out a puzzle and you see a piece and put it on the wrong place and you try a few times and the piece just doesn't fall on place and you keep trying and trying. You know the piece doesn't belong there but you want it to fit no matter what. People tend to do that with their hearts, I tried to put the wrong piece on my heart for years and it didn't work. Until Christ came to me and started to heal my heart. Hes love consumed me, why? I don't know, did I deseved this? Absoluteley not. But Christ's grace is inmense. We do not deserve to live but he lets us breathe, he lests us get up from our beds and walk life.

We deserve the cross, but Jesus took it for us. He shed every last drop of his blood for you and for me. We were the one's that failed God and became sinners. But Jesus on his mercy carried our sins and crucified them on the cross. He's waiting for you. You just have to let him enter your heart and start working on you.

Every day is a new oportunity get closer to God. He is waiting for you to say "Here I am" or something like that. He is calling you, maybe you can't hear him because your ears are busy hearing the wrong people/words/things/music etc. I made my decision a few years ago and I tell you, I don't want to go back. The Holy Spirit came into my life and started to change everything. My life is completley different now and I don't need nothing else, just Him.

Can you give yourself another go? Try it. I can tell you that Jesus's blood has never failed me. Good Night and God Bless:zzz:

A new begining for my band (which doesn't have a name yet ) I was very upset with the music we were doing so it was it for me, I wanted to leave the band. But God made a miracle, we had the oportunity to play with an old friend who plays guitar. We started to play, showed him some of our songs and automatically he started to do some great arranges and our music started to evolve into REAL MUSIC .

My name is Melvin Garcia, I'm a drummer. I love music with all of my heart. I listen to a lot of fusion music. I also like some metal, old rock and some other stuff. I never listen to what's playing on the radio since the radio almost always play crap. My favorite drummer of all time is Virgil Donati (I'm listening "Just Add Water" while I type this).

My life is about serving God, playing drums, listening to music, cooking:chef: and now I'll start bodyboarding and skateboarding again.

Now back to the band:

My band is very strange, we are very different from each other, we all have very different musical tastes, attitudes, personalities... etc. But we get along very good and when we play it feels very good scince Omar (new guitar player) joined us. Our band plays a very strage and sometimes very dark music, although we don't play very heavy stuff. We're between prog rock, alternative, metal and even fusion sometimes! We have some real good songs that I hope some of you will enjoy. We all live in Puerto Rico and we are ready to change how music is heard on this island and hopefully around the world .

My drumming:

Well first of all, I'm no expert. I've been playing for about five years only (I'm 21 yrs old). I consider myself a baby of this great art so I'm not even close to scratch the surface.

I'm a technical drummer, I practice technique every time, even when I'm driving because I want to get faster and want to have more control over the sticks at different tempos. I play a seven piece Sonor force 2003 drumset, Tama Iron Cobra Twin Pedals, Evans Drumheads, Sabian Cymbals (except for a 16" Zildjian Z custom Medium Crash) and Pro-Mark sticks.

My major influences are:

Virgil Donati
Vinnie Colaiuta
Mike Portnoy
Dennis Chambers
Dave Weckl
Thomas Lang
Steve Smith

If you know a bit about music you should know some of these names...If not, they are all great drummers:D

I like to play a lot of grooves and I try to take them to a next level in my drumming by displacing accents, using my left foot to play off beats or different patterns while the other foot plays something else. I also like to play all sort of patterns using double bass. Like broken patterns, flams, triple singles (or something like that) and accented 16's, triplets etc.

I always give 100% of me when I'm playing, and I'm never satisfied with my drum parts on my songs. I study the songs very well and then I aply whatever I think the songs need. My bandmates tell me I'm crazy because sometime I use some strage patterns on the songs but that gives our songs a different personality and they like it:yes: .

Drum Solos:

I don't enjoy long drum solos that much and I like a drum solo with an ostinato on the background or just some sort of music. When I'm playing a solo is like a burst of energy, I play it from the top of my head. It just happens and I explode. Usually my solos are about speed and sometime coordination. Sometimes I can go slow and then increase the speed. I don't know, it just happens. I'm not a great solo drummer but sometimes I feel like start soloing and I just do it. I usually solo at the end of a fast song for a short period of time, you know, to get the crowd pumped up:headbang:

Well this is my first blog entry. I hope to keep posting regularly and not just about music but everything me! See ya! Good Night:zzz: