OpenCamp, Debian, Fedora and OpenSUSE

So, I gave Debian a shot this weekend.  It didn’t go well.  It seems that my Debian installation may have had some problems because from what I understand, I should have gotten Synaptic out of the box.  The biggest problem was no wireless though.  This isn’t exactly Debian’s fault.  It’s Acer’s fault for not using a wireless card with Linux drivers.  In their defence, Linux was not as big in 2004 when this was new (or, at least that’s when the Windows driver is from).  I tried using ndiswrapper, but while it picked up the ssids, it did not pick up an IP address.  These TravelMate machines don’t have a great resolution on Linux, so I just decided to give up.

Now, over on identica, I was discussing some issues I was having with burning an OpenSUSE disk.  I’m going to chalk that up to random, but I’m using the alpha (not sure if it’s updated to beta…I’ve got some updates to do) of Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty, so there could be some problems.  Anyway, just to try to get something usable (not having wireless is not an option) I installed Fedora.  However, the DPI on the fonts was all messed up (or, at least that’s what I’m guessing it was), so I scratched that and got out my “real” laptop with Ubuntu so I could get some work done.  In the meantime, the openSUSE disk finished and I started the install.  I didn’t have it plugged in, so it failed on something, but then went on through to check the hardware, such as the video card.  As per usual when I try to triple boot, I screwed it up some how and while GRUB still has an option for Fedora, it won’t actually boot.  My Windows installation (which I only use to make sure issues aren’t Linux issues) survived the install.  I’m disappointed that openSUSE doesn’t have Moonlight installed by default.  I’m not a Moonlight fan, but since CBS/NCAA decided to go with it, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure it out.

So even though I’ve been happier with PCBSD than Fedora or Debian on this particular hardware (Acer TravelMate c310) I have no intensions of moving to BSD.  I had Linux Mint on the Acer before and didn’t like it either, though typically I’m a big fan of Mint.  I have no idea how long it will be before I get a new desktop or laptop, but that will likely have Mint on it.  I don’t like it enough to switch to it while I’m using Ubuntu.

Moving away from operating systems, today was the first OpenCamp meeting.  We did a phone meeting, which was probably better than the IRC chat I had lined up.  We did not pick a time to discuss again, but we should have.  We came up with lots of good ideas, but there’s lots to do.  There were only three of us on the call (me, allgood2 and poseurtech) but we already got confirmation on a blog post from kaitfoley.  I’ve also heard from geekazine and raster about the meeting, but neither was able to attend. I’ve been tasked with cleaning up our section of http://openeverything.wik.is.  If not for getting sidetracked by green computing discussions on identica, UNC making it to the Final Four and packing for my trip to Kentucky this weekend, I’d have done it today.

Another weekend is coming to a close with me tired rather than refreshed.  I am, however, feel a bit better than I was about two hours ago. food, ftw.

Firefox in BSD, CBS goes with Silverlight 2.0

Firefox in BSD has some serious Javascript issues. I know others have these issues on other platforms, but I use Firefox at work in Vista and at home in Linux all the time, with zero problems.  The only problem with doing testing with these Acer Travelmates is that they are utter garbage. The mouse is erratic no matter what the OS (I’ve tried XP, Linux Mint, Debian and PC BSD).  The VGA out works as often as it doesn’t (actually, that may be giving them too much credit…I’m not sure I’ve ever seen VGA out work on one of these).

Now, I’d think about installing BSD in VirtualBox, but my main machine is running Jaunty and VirtualBox isn’t wanting to work (hey, it’s still in alpha…or is it beta now?  Whatever, it’s not done).

So, the who NCAA.com stuff with CBS is a clusterf*ck.  To *maybe* get it to work in Linux you must first install Subversion.  Then, you must get the latest version of Mono (the version in the repos will not work).  Then, you have to install a pre-alpha version of Moonlight.  Now, this could be fixed a couple ways.

1) Use something cross platform.  Flash is the obvious choice, but an ogg-vorbis stream would be a much better solution.

2) Microsoft could release a Silverlight version for Linux.

So, this Moonlight thing is a work in progress.  I’ll update here when I come to some sort of conclusion.  If you want up-to-date info, you can follow me at identi.ca.

2nd post from BSD. need a recharge

a lot of what I do with technology outside of work hours is advocacy, so I feel like some personal stuff every once-in-a-while is ok.  It gives some context to what I believe.

I need a recharge.

I’m not sure what it is.  I know parts of it.  Work is frustrating. We soon should be getting more help, but the interim (which, has been since the beginning of September) has been pretty brutal.  I think my workouts have been pretty rough lately too.  I’ve changed the workouts a bit though that I think will help.

I thought GLUE would be a recharge but it didn’t happen.  So, I have a favor to ask.  If you care about Linux, FOSS or openness in society, let me hear from you.  Hit me up on identica or leave a comment here.  It’s a lot easier to give energy when you know it isn’t in vain.

Also, I was having some serious performance issues with BSD, but everything seems to be working now.

first post from BSD; thoughts on the world to come

So, I’m typically not a KDE user, but that’s the default on PC-BSD. So far, so good. I’ve checked out KDE before, so it’s not entirely foreign. One thing I immediately don’t like about Konquerer is my cursor does not show up in the WordPress menu. Since I’m president of the Madison Linux User Group, I have no intentions of switching full time, but if I was thinking about it, I don’t think this would be a deal-breaker.  For one thing, this isn’t an issue in the FreeBSD version of Firefox (thank God!).

Flash is working for some things and not others. Presumably this is because it’s using Flash 9 and not Flash 10. AIR says my platform is not supported. LAME! So, Linux compatibility isn’t as useful and easy as it might sound. Kopete looks like a resonable enough chat client. Like Konquerer, I think this is just a KDE thing and really has nothing to do with BSD.  One thing I should note.  Wireless works out of the box.

Alright, time to get serious about this presentation I have on Tuesday about OpenCamp.  GLUE had me thinking seriously about an “ideal world.”  I’ll post on that after Tuesday’s presentation.

I fail at the Internet; GLUE, OEMKE, etc

There are a few points of failure here.  No Internet at LOPSA or GLUE and then just my lack of time.

From the 6th, never posted: “Things have been super-busy lately, as I mentioned in the last blog post.

Yesterday, at the LUG meeting we determined to to have meetings….

Thursday night at LOPSA there was no wifi.  This is a major fail for a tech event, but in the end wasn’t really a big deal.”

This past week was an odd one at work.  Things should get mostly back to normal Monday, except for the monthly staff meeting.

Today I was at GLUE (Great Lakes Urban Exchange), completely a week of screwed up sleep, I plan to get back on track tonight.  I will post my GLUE notes in the near future. Usually, when I go to tech events (which GLUE isn’t) I am re-energized to get stuff done.  GLUE had no such effect on me.  Perhaps it’s lack of sleep?  Perhaps it’s because I already have enough going on?  I guess I’ll find out tomorrow after I finish some of my to-do list.  Right now (as soon as I hit publish), I am going to get some much needed sleep.

Also, I spent time with the leaders of MadTech, Web608 and the Madison Drupal User Group tonight (as well as a couple other Madison techies) at “Not at SxSW”.

In between those to events, I met with Jenn of Bucketworks.  Aside from learning a bit about Milwaukee and Bucketworks, the meeting was productive in that we picked a tentative date for Open Everything Milwaukee.  I don’t want to say when yet, because I haven’t spoken to the others involved, but if you joing the mailing list you’ll find out tomorrow instead of whenever I decide to put it here.

OpenCamp, NowDoThis and other things

I started this on Saturday and somehow got distracted…

You may have noticed I’ve been blogging more lately.  I think I can attribute that to two things.

1) well, if you looked at more apartment, you’d understand.

2) NowDoThis.com.  There are tons of “To Do” lists and task managers on the web.  I’ve used a couple on the Google Customized Home Page (which I never use any more), but never got the focus NowDoThis gives me.  (mentioning NowDoThis on my blog was on my NowDoThis list

Also just wanted to mention that my brother is at the GT High School Math Competition this weekend.  Good thing for traffic that the UNC/GT game is in Chapel Hill.  GT and UNC are the most likely schools for my brother to attend…though he still hasn’t heard back from MIT.  I’m not sure how his recent knee injury will affect his futbol career.

But what I really want to talk about are two events (and then some).

1) Open Everything and FOSS: On March 17th at 7pm, I’ll be giving a presentation on how a non-tech conference can help techies and why it should stay a non-tech conference.

2) OpenCamp: April 18th at Grainger Hall on UW’s campus.  I plan on writing more about this, just not now.

And then some) no time now, but GLUE is coming up (March 14th for me), there’s a LOPSA meeting tomorrow (Thursday now) and there’s a MadLUG meeting on Friday (the 6th).
Next week are advisory cousils at work.  I am emphatically not looking forward to this.  This probably means I won’t get a chance to post again until after GLUE.  Who knows what the weekend will bring, but I am way, way behind on everything right now.  If anybody wants to help with LUG stuff or Open Everything stuff, I could certainly use it!