Well, I just wanted to weigh in on this quickly.

What a wonderful learning curve wikipedia is, and continues to be.

See, recently, I read about a 20 page rant about Linux vs. GNU/Linux in naming convention.  Having been in IT as long as some have been alive, I rarely but did hear the GNU/ part.  (Never pronounced the slash though.  I read that's also expected.)

And likely, the slash, is just as distracting and to me, unsustainable as the rest.

We're all human, so, if let's say you have a Chevrolet Corvette.  If you call it a Corvette, are you disrespecting the GM or Chevrolet name brands?  Isn't there a ton of content from AC Delco?  Still, if you called it a Chevy, you could make people highly wonder, Which One?  Can't call it a GM, even though their money put the whole thing together.  Really, the human way is to shorten the name to something we all relate to and understand, a Corvette.  Immediately brings to mind a vision.

So, along this line, I wish to disagree witht he Free Software Foundation, which seems very much a little too GNU influenced.  Maybe we can easily rename it GNU Software Foundation, and we can go back to debating just how free is free.

Anyway, I digress.  If one wishes to take the body off the Corvette, and return with all original Ferrari (because I can't spell Lamborghini) parts for a body, and adds all the body parts, can he sell the car as a Ferrari?  Nope, that's already been decided long ago.

Can he sell it as a Corvette?  Nope.

Can he sell it as a Corvette, with Ferrari body?  Sure, that's what it is.

And when your hanging with the buds, admiring all the work that a dedicated owner put into it, would you say he has one awesome Ferrari?  No, you wouldn't.  Would you say he has one awesome Corvette.  Maybe.  Would you say he has one awesome Car, or Exotic, easily.  Would you be purposely taking away from the owner's efforts by referring to this awesome creation as a car?  Heck no.

There are plenty of Linux Distributions.  Linux is just the core.  Are some butt ugly to me?  Surely.  Does that make them bad or useless?  Heck no.  Do I refer to them as Linux Distributions?  Nope, unless someone asks me to give them a rhetoric about Linux and its history.  THEN the GNU, X Window System, apache, Ubuntu, Mandriva and Redhat and and all I know are released.

I was just noting, that we use tags here a lot for the blog.  Guess which one I had to add?

Ask me about my Corvette...plenty of great parts, plenty of super suppliers, non of them built a fully working vehicle.  Is there likely a COMP CAMS/CORVETTE.   Probably, somewhere, and I am sure, it is super, in the eyes of its owner and everyone that feasts upon such a creation.

Surf Safe,

ezsurfer

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You know, sometimes we all go a little too far.  Machiner - you might have with this one -

We all know Windows users usually don't "log on".

I always read about "freedom" and free software, how it's not free and all.

Then, something strikes a chord, and you get to read all these accusations and such.  I call that politics.  If it's really all about the user experience, and freedom, then what does anyone else care about how or what I do?  You're free to chose.

You can even chose Windoze, millions do.  I just don't.  I don't do Windows.  Except on the car and the house, and at work, where I can't get them to see through Windoze into the light.

The other day, I sent the lead at IM a note, telling him I would gladly let my work laptop be loaded with any version on Linux they wished, and I would report back regularly on compatibility issues. Still no takers - go figure.

MAybe next time

Surf Safe,

ezsurfer

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Everyone wants to know, which is better, Droid or iPhone?  hmmm  Which is better, PC or Apple?

I agree, Apple is slick.  Most love the interface, after they learn it.  I still have trouble maneuvering an iPod.  Just seems less than automatically intuitive to me.

So, folks ask me, How do I like my Droid?  I tell them, it's in my blood. 
I guess kind of like a cold, I can't shake it.  But unlike a cold, I don't think it's a bad thing.

Someone asked me a little while ago exactly what do I like about a Droid more so than an iPhone.  When they asked, I realized I hadn't really given it much thought.  But it did stop me, and make me think about that.

Three things.

1)  I am a PC.  I relate to PC, I understand PC, and I can make PC's do good things.  Fairly consistantly, with little effort most times.  The interface, even though not particularly super or fancy, is what I relate to and know.  The Droid is PC.  Or as similar as Linux is to Windows, anyway.  And that is to me, highly comparable.  So I find I can easily understand and use my Droid.

2)  I feel it is economical, in that it replaces 3 things in my life that are almost inseparable from me, my iPod, my phone, and a GPS.  1 for 3 in a constantly changing world, now made easier.

3)  Voice search - simply put, just tell your Droid what you want, and it often suprises you with exactly what you were looking to know.  I showed this off the other night, and folks soon knew what had become the buzzwords around my family at Thanksgiving "Ask the Droid!"  It is uncannily good at converting a voice thought into the knowledge I am looking for, be it directions to the nearest BestBuy or as we learned the other night, how to make a hot buttered rum!

The Droid has one up on every piece of technology (including an iPhone in my opinion - this IS  a blog) I ever had, where most technology I am used to using usually "almost" does what I need it to, or can be made to almost do what I was wishing, the Droid consistantly has suprised me by one-uping my expectations.  It consistantly has done more and better and faster than I was expecting.

Suprising, and sweet!  So, news is iPhone is still tops, after all 3 million in the US alone.  Let's see iPhone, 3 years old, 3 million served.  Droid, 3 months old, 1 million served.  Seems like someone is out of the gate awefully fast for a no-chance race...

Surf Safe

ezsurfer

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Only in the land of smaller faster better.  Linux Land.

Read about Slitaz the other day, and just had to check it out.  It is one slick little OS.  Actually, for a 30 MB total download, which means it fits in RAM on any computer less than 10 years old, it's  a fairly awesome acomplishment.

I didn't see much I didn't think was almost absolutely amazing.  They even threw in a complimentary game.  Suduko, they must be after my heart.  And it's a challenging version to me.  I haven't studied much, but I do practice regularly.  I would hate to see what they call hard, as I thought EASY was way too much.  I got all the puzzles I did so far, but two I had to get a hint on.

All in all, for a blustery day (never thought I would get to say that in South Florida), it helped pass the time.  I wanted to go fishing, but I kept telling myself even fish don't eat out in this weather.

Here's a link ( http://distrowatch.com/slitaz ) which can hook you up with the Live CD iso.  You can use that and Unetbootin and build yourself a Linux pen drive system which will let you fix other system crashes from the drive or CD.  Even laptops, the media can be removed after bootup, and the system is resident in memory.  Makes for a rather quick and nimble rescue OS.

surf safe

ezsurfer

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Many, many thanks go out to

Shannon VanWagner!

Thanks to his easy to follow blog entry (here - http://www.humans-enabled.com/ ), my Droid now allows me to tether my Dell laptop to access the Internet and get productive wherever I have cell phone access.

The only current drawback is quite small, to run this, after the install is complete, per Shannon's blog entry, is to

1) connect your tether to your PC

2) open azilink on the Droid and enable the connection (Do not allow USB connect - just ignore the message)

3) turn off wireless in Network Manager

4) Open a terminal

5) From the command prompt    "  openvpn  "

6) then:     "  sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart  "

after the input of your admin password, you should see

* Reconfiguring network interfaces...                                   [ OK ]

7) then:     "  sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart  "

* Restarting network connection manager NetworkManager                  [ OK ]

8) then:  cd to the directory where you placed your files   IF you followed Shannon's example, similar to myself, then you   "  cd /Downloads/azilink  "

9) then:  "  /home/YOURUSERNAME/Downloads/azilink/start_modem "

and you should see this message

* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
and more, but if you got this, check your Droid, you should see azilink Status now says Connected to Host, and you are active to the web.

And you don't have to remember anything, just use your arrow keys after you initially get it right, and you can repeat the past command at the command line without retyping anything, and you are up and running again and again.

Control - C in the terminal to end the link up.

It is so fine to have such a great and contributing community!

Surf Safe,

ezsurfer

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Recently I wrote aboput showing my nephews Linux Mint.  Linux soon had 2 converts.  And they are spreading the word.  Seems the younger crowd doesn't have all the hangups about how to be productive.

So, if you want to ditch Windows, and you wish to install Linux Mint, follow these simple steps.  Additionally, Debian or Ubuntu also install the same, along with most distributions of Linux.

Let's say you've seen Linux and are interested in making the leap.  I'll assume you've already backed up your music, pictures, and any other data files you don't wish to lose.  This would include your email if not using a web based server.  I have found most of the younger crowd lives off webbased mail servers, so I am learning, also.

First, you need a CD.  This you will be using for the "Live CD" of whatever distribution you chose.  Distrowatch.com on the lower left side shows the current hit numbers, clicking on the list will take you to a link allowing you to download an iso file (I personally use Linux Mint - it just works for me).  This is what you need to get rolling.  If you wish to make sure you get it right, and have the time, you can always order the CD from just about every disto site.

Once you download the iso file, you now use nero burn, sonix, or any burn program and point it to the iso.  Currently, just about every program will realize it's an iso and ask you is you wish to write this image to disk.  THAT"S IT!  That's exactly what you want to do.  Once done, you now have a bootable Distro disk.

Assuming you've already backed up your data, and are ready for the big jump, restart the PC.  It should give you a message on boot, then it's a few questions to the install.  Most Linux distro's boot onto the Live CD, and give you an install icon.  Tap the install icon.  Follow the easy questions.  You can decide to keep your Windows when you get that prompt, or you can ditch Windows completely.

After the install is complete, you will be prompted to restart or continue, restart.

Pop out the CD, and you are rebooted.  If you do nothing, you are into Linux.  From here, I like a couple of things more than others.  The first thing to realize, is the Synaptic Package Manager.  It's normally under Administration from the menus.  Here you can install packages and not mess up your install.  This is important, because you want the software to update if it needs to to be smoother in operation.

I install Songbird, bacause I think it's the besy iPod sync music player on the platform.  AS soon as it is done, I also add Avant Window Navigator (AWN on some distros) for a great taskbar.  I change the Panel bar via right button click to the top of my screen.  Reminds me right away it's not Windows.  Then I make sure I enable any drivers I need for video and wireless.  This can be tricky, but in Linux Mint, it's usually just a prompt.  Realize if it asks you if you want to enable a wireless driver, and you have no internet connection, you will need to enable this via hardwire or broadband to get the download.

Now I install Compiz.  I love the desktop, eyecandy to some, production to some.  I personally like both points.  In Linux Mint, you do this via the control center.  Go to the simple settings first, it's here you set the cube up, and the number of sides, and enable the extra annimations.

I then go to the complete settings and set up the burn, airplane, and anything else I can't live without.

So, check it out, and tell me how it went.  Any questions - comment on up!

Surf Safe

ezsurfer

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