Steven

Various Linux screenshots

Tuesday, 10. June 2008, 16:03:09

These are some screenshots taken throughout the course of 7 or so months from Ubuntu 7.04-8.04.

Screenshot2.png

desktop nov.png

ubuntu theme3.png

mynewdesktop.png

hardyheron.png

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severe thunderstorms make us laugh?

Thursday, 5. June 2008, 17:59:31

weatherball, Thunderstorm, lightning, rain ...

Okay, let me explain the title. Earlier today a batch of severe thunderstorms rolled through west Michigan with heavy rain and lots of lightning! Yikes!

Not to far away is a news and weather forcasting center called WZZM 13 which has a nice weatherball that forecasts the weather. A song has been made to remember what the colors mean, but that has changed a bit today. The metallic tower was struck by a bolt of lightning knocking. The new song is as follows: Weatherball red, warmer ahead.
Weatherball blue, cooler in view.
Weatherball green, no change foreseen.
Colors blinking bright, rain or snow in sight.
Colors running amok,
Look out, the ball just got struck!

LOL! I don't take the credit for this, i'm not that cleaver.

Is this God's way of saying the weatherball is gay?

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Desktop design

Tuesday, 3. June 2008, 19:07:51

windows, coolness, desktop

Desktop shell replacement for windows! There are a lot of different ones but the ones i've tried and work well are worth looking into. Especially those who own slower machines.

The first one i've tried is Winstep, which is really quite cool!

but! its not free

of course most programs which are "really quite cool" rarely are. Another one is Talisman II. This is my current desktop shell on my old laptop, it is very stable but VLC player won't stay on top of the taskbar and clock. this can be configured and is not to much of a problem.

Stardocks DesktopX is neat too! I will post a blog soon with the different screenshot of these from my desktop!

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oldies but goodies!

Sunday, 1. June 2008, 14:42:41

PC, classic, games

This is just a post about the current games on my laptop which i am totally addicted to! Breakquest is one of these games. Breakquest is a break-out type game from Nurium that has really cool music and can barely stop playing long enough to even finish this post! lol outlaws from lucas arts is really great too. AH! Demonstar classic and secret missions 1-2 are amazing! this is like the arcade style space invaders game but way WAY cooler! lots of action! Diablo II is fantastic! these games are able to run on a PII system with little to no problems. The main problems i usually run into are lack of compatible graphics card for running openGL or advanced graphics for the shadow and debris engines on games. Download the demos!

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installing Linux distro without cd!

Saturday, 31. May 2008, 10:27:13

unetbootin, ubuntu, os, linux ...

Now a lot of people want to know how to install a distro of linux without having to burn an .iso image to a disk. The solution is rather simple, well kinda. I myself used this technique to install linux on an old windows 98 computer and made it dual booting! This will install whats called a grub boot loader into the system drive (windows) so you get a menu prompting you which OS you wish to boot.
Ok, before we do anything you must have at least a DSL connection, seriously cable or Fios would be better! This method takes time since it downloads the files needed and then installs them on a second formatted HDD. You could also create a second partion on the main drive and install on that second partion but take care not to overwrite windows! I know how to do this now since i've done it about 3x's and everytime works well!

First- go here: UNetbootin select for windows and select which distro of linux you wish to install. then follow the on screen instuctions for setting up the boot loader which, when completed, will ask you to restart your machine.

Second- after rebooting a type of command screen should appear and guide you through completing the download of and installing of Linux.

select UNetbootin from the menu. Be patient, this will take some time.

BE SURE TO INSTALL IT ON THE FORMATTED DRIVE! unless you plan to overwrite windows. You can make it so but not recommended. if your new to linux you may want to keep windows and make this a dual boot.

It is pretty similar to windows in terms of the fucntionality of the desktop and internet browsers are almost identical to windows but there are some differances which set linux apart from the EULA abiding OSes out there.

Third- at this point you will be ready to restart your machine and boot into your newly installed linux OS!

Enjoy!

*Note: at the time I installed mine it supported windows 98se, the distros I recommend (which worked for 98) are Ubuntu 6.06-7.10 also Debian worked. If you have extra hard drives, try clonning your OS to them and overwriting the clones with Ubuntu or anyother distro. I managed to do just that and have a small 40GB HDD which had a clone of windows 98se and overwritten with Ubuntu 7.04 feisty fawn and it works really well! for desktop effects try Compiz or beryl (depending on the power of your machine) once all said and done you will be able to use VMware to run windows in linux enviroment if you want! I am on linux as I type this out now!

ubuntu <<<screenshot of simple Ubuntu desktop (source, my desktop ubuntu 6.06)

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helicopter crash

Friday, 30. May 2008, 18:22:24

med, aero, helicopter

Yesterday at around 11:02 a.m. Aero med of Spectrum Health crashed onto the roof of the hospital. both the pilot and passenger survived. I live about a half mile from the hospital and could see black smoke coming from that area of downtown Grand Rapids. The pilot is the best of the best but the cause of the accident is still being investgated, it appeared that one of the skycams (used to forcast the weather and show cloud cover) was crooked and some people believe that it clipped a radio antenna during a routine landing procedure. My first thought when seeing this was my sister, she is about to give birth and was going in on that morning! I received a call about an hour later and it was her! she cancelled the appointment but is going in Friday (today). The first couple floors have been evacuated for cleanup of the fuel which managed to leak into an elevator shaft and stair case. No structural damage to the building but the chopper is complete gone. I still can't believe it... Around 1995 or 96 I went to an air fair with my uncle in Muskegon and remember seeing the inside of the aero med helicopter. and every day I hear it hovering towards the hospital, but now its gone! Of course a copter is replaceable, the lives involved aren't and i'm thankful for the quick actions of pilot and FAA passenger getting out safely.