Xandros

So I'm sitting here blogging and I was noticing that when I did a search for Ubuntu that under the google sponsored links there was a Ubuntu vs Xandros link. I clicked on it and was sent to the Xandros web site.

Ok, maybe I'm dumb but they are both debian distros. And Xandros is pay only. Now if that is wrong and there is a live-cd for me to play with I'm all for trying it out. The only thing I hate about some of the distros for linux out there right now is that they are pay-for only (more or less). I mean what's the point of leaving one paid-for operating system to go to another. Now don't get my wrong, a lot of the distros like suse xandros or redhat are great for those people that want tech support or at the very least someone to blame when something breaks.

But that's not me. I use things like BSD's and other Unix systems cause I want control of my experience, I want it cheap, and I want neat new tech that is sometimes really niche. If anyone has a better overview of Xandros I'd love to hear it.

Ruminations on Linux

So, something I've been thinking of doing is installing ubuntu on my computer on the alternate hard drive partition. I've already done so on the laptop, and well I rarely now go into the windows paritions. The only things that I don't know will work in Ubuntu (I can hazard guesses but eh)

*iTunes music, specifically the aac's on the drive, if they even exist
*the podcasts on the ntfs partitions
*network set up might be slightly painful if this network card isn't recognized

All kind of slight reasons to not use Linux. I could do things like set up a webserver on the box and let people know the site or set up jabber servers and other messaging elements. Those are serious draws. And I know the sound will work, since this is an AC97 sound card. Hm.... Guess I could always slot a live-cd and see what shows up and what doesn't. The choices abound. Oh and would X work on this ati radeon 9800....

Mutt with Gmail

This blog article talks about how to use mutt with gmail. Very handy to have. My would someone use mutt when they could go over to the gmail web interface? Well sometimes you aren't at a web browser, or with me, I want to be able to customize various aspects of the reply that I don't have in the web client.

For example, mutt lets you do things like have multiple identities when you are replying to things, sometimes you can have mulitple signatures and some other features.

And heck, I really like mutt.

NetBSD's CGD

Tasty crypto information follows. One of my favourite things mentioned: n-stage crypto keys. So you could have some wacky things like a network key, a disk based key, a password, and another key on a crypto partition that only opens up at certain times.

Keey your stuff secret if you want, but the really nice thing is that you could do this on a laptop and have it so that if the laptop is stolen, all that critical credit card information and pictures of your spouse aren't usable by *anyone*. Also, would kind of eliminate what happened on the National Lampoon's European Vacation, with the video camera..... hint hint.

'aztec calendar' T-Shirt

Here is an example of the zazzle.com shirts and also something that I was looking at getting sometime in the near future.

Can't know this calendar. Now if only I could find Tekumel items.

Zazzle.com

If you want to make super pimp tshirts, one at a time, you should zip over toZazzle.com. It has things like Scooby Doo shirts and lets you really customize your shirts, with things like color, style and logo on a per shirt basis.

Very handy.

Blogger Buzz

Blogger Buzz is something that I think is part marketing and part feature announcement. With that said they had the latest "Blog This!" bookmarklet linked, and it was changed over on Jan 3rd. Wacky.

Cheese

So it appears that a lot of my prior posts went to a pic blog.

Hard
Core
Cheese

Anyways, I've deleted those posts and am going to check and see if there is a new bookmarklet that will go to the right blog.

Code of Unaris

Amazon.com: Code of Unaris: Chat Roleplaying: Books

Yeah, this is wacky. I've seen a copy and the overarching ideas are very very cool. Imagine a game session where you hack what the GM just said so that the event is less threatening or neater than s/he had imagined.

Buffalo Yarn

Here is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Yarn from the American Bison. Apparently, there is even a patent on how to get and make it. Donein 1991. So this isn't something that your grandmother knit with. Or shoot even your mother.

Supposedly it's quite soft....