el rinconcito

OMG, if any file names end in ".rpm", I'm leaving town.

so cruel! lol. Anyway, I had thought of going back to slackware's .tgz stuff, "a la pkgtool" (I ran slack for almost 10 years and loved it), but release 12 SUCKED! I think I have no home now.

Won't buy a Mac.

Windows hurts my feelings almost as much as Bush did.

Linux can be a roulette, but at least it's still exciting.

I've also heard the term "hearding cats".

You should get one. There's worse ways to spend, ......some money.

On a side note Ubuntu is good but I really really don't understand that shitty brown-orange theme.

I find blue just as offensive now. It's probably a rebellion thing. Castro would know.

Hello! Another day. Going to my mom's to eat, then tonight more time to play with the new toy.

I need to get the wireless running correctly in my house. It works, sometimes. I've never done much wireless and sometimes don't understand what to do. I've always run cables everywhere, but with the netbook, I want to be able to sit outside and use it.

So many settings, and I don't even know what the defaults or standards should be. Always something new to learn.

AP/Adhoc?
WEP, WPA, WPA2.

RADIUS, pre-shared key, mixed?. TKIP, AES, TKIP+AES?

OK, from the little I know, a good wireless router setting would be: AP, WPA2, pre-shared key, TKIP+AES?

*sigh*

Wireless workin' GOOD! WPA2, etc.

This little netbook runs so fine. Fun!

Now I'm at my mom's using her connection. I'm not used to being mobile like this. Usually I'm tied to the desk.

This runs Ubuntu netbook remix. I don't know much about it yet. I want to get Opera on here ASAP, but due to the processor, the i386 version has to be modified for it. There are forums that tell how, I just have to take a minute to do it.

I'm surprised at all the wireless signals in my neighborhood. All are secured except one. Some are probably the default password. The bank near my house is broadcasting its SSID, which is something weird like "deathray".

I think all this is old hat to most people, but it's all new to me. I've been online for ages, just always tethered. My first net connection was dialing into the university to get a terminal and surfing with Lynx. I still enjoy Lynx sometimes. So easy on the eyes.

Opera 9.62 working like a charm! It was easy, just force the i386 .deb package ignoring the architecture so it will install on "lpia".

sudo dpkg --force-architecture -i opera_9.62.2466.gcc4.qt3_i386.deb

If you force it, it won't show up as installed under the graphical package manager, but it will always show up on the command line.

dpkg -l opera

ii opera 9.62.2466.gcc4.qt3 The Opera Web Browser

There was one dependency, libqt3-mt, which took about a second to resolve with the package manager.

Opera looking simple and pretty, just like I like it:

Opera is in all the other architecture repositories, just not for lpia, or you can add the opera-run repository to your list, but still no lpia. The repositories for the netbook remix are nice, though a bit smaller than the others. Lots of fun/useful stuff that most buyers of this netbook would use and enjoy.

Some non-GUI stuff I use was not in the repository, though I guess you could force the i386's:

mc - midnight commander (file manager)
joe - wordstar-like text editor (brings back memories)
lynx - links2 was available instead (non-graphical web browser)

I know you know what these are. I'm just describing for the search indexing.

My favorite crypto and stuff were already installed:

ssh - Open SSH client (remote login program)
sftp - secure file transfer program
gpg - GNU Privacy Guard - OpenPGP encryption and signing tool

Also, the best card game in the world, PySol, was one click away in the repository. I've been addicted to PySol forever.

Everybody in this thread has really enhanced my fun with this. Thanks!

The netbook is so cute I just stare at it sometimes. I got the "yaller", but heck, even the pink is yummy, though pink could cause problems in a butch library or netcafe environment. I hope Sylvania makes a go of these things.

The old Universal Mix-a-Beater mixer will be making some good desserts this month. I got the recipes, just got to get the stuff. I like using a recipe out of a magazine and seeing if it will come out kind of like the picture. In high school, my friends were working on cars while I was perfecting my quiches and 7-layer Jello desserts. I worked on my car some, too.

Why pink would be a problem in a library or netcafe?

Because these places are symbols of extreme masculinity. You will notice in the parking lots that there will be mostly Harleys and pickup trucks with Confederate flags on them. Coming in there with a pink netbook or a *foreign-made scooter* could cause society to unravel.

Sample image of a manly metrosexual transporter:


Photo above is Creative Commons usage from cfarivar on flickr.

Besides, my scooter is dark blue, not pink

Hmmm, dark blue, it's a "maybe".

You *might* get past the societal sentries at the library door if you walk tough, have boots on, and mumble something about your pickup not running due to rolling it over the previous weekend.

Don't the women's Harleys have a basket on the handlebars and ribbons in the spokes?

I think I saw a "Hello Kitty" Sportster one time. j/k.

It seems like an intruder in a group scene always causes some discomfort. Sometimes on my job, I ride into a town and go into a diner or gas station to ask directions and mispronounce the street/town name like only an out-of-towner would and all heads turn. Sometimes it can go the other way and people will take you under their wing. For example, in this area if you are wating for a drink in a busy bar, it is custom to wait for the bartender to look at you before calling out your drink order. In a New York bar it would be likely that you'd never get served waiting so politely; however, I've had New York bartenders find out I'm from out of town and give me special service all night. It's interesting how people sometimes break the perception.

Truly one of life's universal questions. Some thoughts off the top of my head, life can be cold, uncertain, frightening, lacking meaning. Joining a cause or group, even an evil one, at least somewhat addresses these. It's easy to reach for the Nazis as a classic example. I felt so bad for the hell they unleashed, but I also felt bad seeing Berlin lying in ruins in the final days.

Another universal question: I watched an entire TV show over a decade ago, Northern Exposure, that had to do with the question, "why do we hurt the ones we love?" The answer proposed in the final few minutes was, "because we can". Shockingly direct and simple, it made sense to me.

You're referring to the nazi's, but you could just as easily chosen any religious movement.

That did come to mind as I was writing earlier. I really fear and despise most religion that is practiced here today. Almost every church I hear making noise today is really a corporation with a CEO, with a corporate designed logo, running pre-purchased packaged programs, having branch offices in other places like a chain store, running their business tax free, getting public money for offering some level of a social service while petitioning to be allowed to discriminate and getting a wink from the government. The really obvious ones usually have person's name as their corporate title followed by the word "ministries", but even old churches in my city are converting to this model, I guess because it really brings in the money. Instead of a search for truth, justice, and spirituality, I think they probably offer mostly religious entertainment. Most seem to push for the usual unfettered predatory capitalism, are anti environment, pro war, and ring the homosexuality-is-evil bell frequently when it suits their needs. They say stuff so absurd that I can hardly believe anybody would pay them any mind, like homosexuality had something to do with 9-11, Hugo Chavez should be assassinated, and lots of insults for Islam and the middle east (something about Israel melting down and bringing on the second coming). Though the above things would hardly carry any sway in a rational mind, they do damage anyway, and can at least be used by the target groups to whip up retaliatory sentiment.

Oh, I better stop. My head starts to ache and swirl when I think of these things.

but when I asked why they could not tell, out of some vague "I am republican" or "I am democratic" then I asked what it means and then there was the echo

I did get a little excited when it became clear that Obama was going to be the winner with his message for change, but it hardly took a week before it became clear that it will probably be mostly a Clinton-era redux, which I'd suspected anyway. As much as people like to laugh at Ralph Nader and call him names, the man is right on most things, one of them being that you should vote your heart, mind, and conscience, and not just vote for the "least worst", which is what I felt I did.

The "2-party" system has been so ingenious and clever. Every few years one side of it will appear to be a little more democratic so as to sway the people over and spend down their energy. Any movements that spring up that demand real change and challenge the status quo, one party or the other will send out a tentacle to drain it of its vitality and assimilate it into the non-threatening mainstream.

I dunno. I feel like I have gone to a lot of trouble to educate myself on things, and I feel like I can see deeply sometimes, but every time I try to express myself to others, I feel like I can't organize my thoughts and often come across as a rambling idiot. *sigh*

Personally I don't mind about the secular organization behind any religion because religions are intrinsically illogical and irrational so the contradiction between "principles" and "actions" is only a consequence.

I might try to adopt this attitude. It might save me some pain.

In other news, my net went down for an hour tonight. That hasn't happened in almost a year. I kind of freaked. I hate calling in for service, because the first thing they ask you to do is go to "my computer", and when they find out I don't have Windows, the conversation gets tense. Then they find out I've stuck a router in between *their* modem and my machine, it gets even worse.

Last time it went down, it took 3 visits by a tech to get it smooth again. They wouldn't replace the 3 year old modem that smelled hot, they had to string a new cable from the street, then replace the box on the side of the house, and *finally* replace the modem, which fixed it.

I wasn't looking forward to these weeks off with a shakey Internet. It's not like I'm addicted to it.

I kind of live for these unexpected threads in my opera. I appreciate everyone a lot.

I do need to take a walk in the park this week. I think you suggested some walking earlier Lorenzo. Maybe I'll go on a feminine Harley spotting tour. Hello Kitty?

calls from non-tech customers (those who complain because the Internet is down and their cable is unplugged)

A funny work story, and I hope the company isn't tracking me with search engines. I doubt it because things in the office are so....ummm, "disorganized". Mainly they just care if I show up for work every now and then, am reasonably clean, not drunk, and can speak *some* English.

Anyway, tech support in my office is handled by 3 very nice people, strange but nice. It was 3 am and I was booting up for the days work and my equipment was malfunctioning badly. I hesitated before waking one of them at 3 am but I had to do it. The second the tech answered in a sleepy voice, I looked down and saw an unplugged USB cable. I froze. I couldn't say "sorry, never mind", then hang up, so I remembered a problem that I'd had 6 months before and got them to walk me through that. Whew! Saved me from an ass chewing.

--

My Internet comes through the TV cable. It's CRAZY fast and very reliable. I had DSL through the phone company, but every time it rained I'd get static on the line and it would barely work. They seemed completely incapable of fixing this after many service calls, so I went with the cable.

I also ended up canceling my telephone service later on because I moved a few miles and the phone company refused to let me keep the same number. There is a "number portability charge" on the bill each month which is supposed to make it possible to keep the same number forever, but they said I was in a different switching area and would have to get a new number. I asked for a refund of the "number portability charge" which I'd been paying for *years*, and of course I was refused. After I got the cable Internet, I contacted one of the VoIP phone companies, and they had me hooked up with my old number is 3 days! The big traditional phone companies have sued the hell out of the new VoIP companies, I guess for finally providing some value to the customer.

All the service promises are crap after they get you under contract. Most companies here now have an "arbitration clause" that you have to agree to to get service, which means you cannot sue them, except in a corporate controlled "kangaroo court" arbitration center which sides with them 99% of the time, and *you* have to pay all the charges.

I also hate it when I have to call the support center a dozen times to resolve a problem and cannot understand their English anyway. Then a week later they call to see how was my customer service experience. Then I have to ask, "which one of the 15 calls did you mean?"

The cell companies are even worse than the traditional phone company because they know they "gotcha". They put you under a 2-year contract, and if you break it, it's $200 *per line*! I hear that the way to break the contract early and pay no fee is to call customer service constantly about every little thing, then they will drop you as a customer to save money.

Consumer gang rape stories are often shocking but sometimes fun to read. It's like talking about the weather. It's easy and something everybody is familiar with.

Yes, there should be effective protection from abuse for the citizen/consumer, but all companies have to do is ask and they receive whatever they want. The regulatory bodies are appointed and are stacked with people from the very companies they are supposed to regulate.

The free market mantra seems to be, profits are private, risk is public.

Other good and clean ones are the IMF and World Bank. Making loans to half legitimate governments, and all they ask in return is hand over your airline, water, banks, and whatever else we can think of, then recover! It's a simple proven formula! Oh, and if you have a revolution, our services will transfer effortlessly to the new government for your convenience. Don't even think of pulling a Castro, or we're taking our marbles and going home.