I don’t really know why I waited until so late in the day – or early in the morning – to do it (at least in part it was because I was meeting a friend for late dinner at 8:00), but about a year after installing Xandros on an old Compaq box and never getting back to it, I decided to dump Xandros and install Ubuntu in it’s place.
Getting the WET54G wireless bridge set up last weekend was a three-hour process, and also a subject for another day. For now, the most important tip is that the machine you’re using to set it up needs to be set to an address on the 192.168.1.0 network. If you want to set the bridge up by hand instead of using the “Quick Setup” disk, you need to use your browser to connect to 192.168.1.226. UserId and Password are both “Admin” (they’re CaSe seNsitIVe by the way).
I don’t have any great amount of experience with any Linux distribution (or with Linux at all really), but I’ve been wanting to add Linux to my pool of knowledge for a while. There wasn’t any one powerful reason to switch distributions, except that a year ago I couldn’t get an updated version of Firefox to install on Xandros (in fact, I even managed to wipe out the old version) and when I used the Xandros management software to do an update this evening, the most recent version was 1.5. (Current version for Windows is 2.0.0.11.)
For all I know, installing the most recent of Xandros would have given me the current Firefox and maybe the ability to run SETI@Home too, but Ubuntu’s been getting a lot of buzz recently and since I’m a newbie, I’m going to want to be find help easily. If I’m going to install a new distribution, I may as well go with the crowd for now. (Please don’t leave me a zillion comments saying, “Oh, you should have used distro-X instead, it’s much easier. I’m sure each distribution has its own particular charms. I’m happy enough for now.)
My first ever boot from a live CD was an interesting experience. I’d already set the machine to boot from CD, so after switching it on, all I had to do was reboot and let it go. My CD drive is a bit noisy and for a while it sounded like there was a cow mooing in the spare bedroom.
Once the system came up, I was presented with about seven different menu choices. After a few dubious experiments with the memory test and such, I finally chose the default Setup/Install option and let it fly.
When the system stopped mooing again (I may need to rename that machine to “Bossy”; too bad it’s not a Gateway. 🙂 ) my screen was divided into vertical sections divided by flashing/jumping/irritating lines. After playing with the menu bar at the top of the page, I found the “Resolution” tool under preferences and dropped both the resolution and the refresh rate by one notch each, this made the CRT much happier and no doubt saved me from a migraine.
The screen I was presented with turned out to be a functional Linux desktop. A working email client, Firefox 2.0.something, Open Office, and even a few games. (It has Suduko — Dad will enjoy discovering that.) Along with the menu at the top (all the basic system utilities), there were two icons on the desktop. I’m not really sure what to make of the “Examples” folder, though the musical clips were nice enough. After poking around for a bit, I double-clicked the “Install” icon.
The installation program seems simple enough. Seven prompts for things like your time zone, how much of the hard drive to use for Linux, and information for the main user account and then the system starts whirring away, writing stuff to the hard drive so it will run faster. (The Live CD is a nice idea, but aside from the mooing, it’s slow.)
The install is still running, probably due to the age of the hardware as much as anything else (PIII with 256 MB of RAM and a 120 GB drive) so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out how it all went. I’m a little concerned that the main user account created during the install is going to turn out to be running with administrative privileges, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it (At least I know enough to be concerned about that sort of stuff).
In the meantime, I’m going to let Bossy keep mooing while I go and get some sleep.
Monthly Archives: February 2008
Jaycee Wisdom
Back in November, I realized The Secret of Life is that there are no rules.
During 2007, I served as the Maryland Jaycees District Director West, acting as a representative on the Executive Committee of the state organization’s Board of Directors. In late December, I was asked to provide some basic orientation for the incoming district director for another district. After emailing my response, I decided to post it to the district blog under the title of “Advice for a new District Director.” The advice I gave in that article is actually quite similar to Rule 1 of the aforementioned Secret of Life.
There’s a new person filling the role of District Director. Jeff’s a good guy, but the district blog is no longer mine to control. Since Jeff, or any other successor, may decide to discontinue the blog, I’ve reposted the article here. Take from it whatever wisdom you may find.
Probably the most important piece of advice anyone gave me when I was elected was simply, “Don’t let anyone tell you how to do the job.” After thinking about it for a bit, I realized this was sound advice. The world is full of people who want to second-guess you. Or putting it another way:
Rule 1: There are no rules about how to be a Jaycee Leader
Everything else in this post should doubtless be filtered through Rule 1. 🙂
That being said… the District Director is in a unique position relative to the rest of the Executive Board. Everyone else has to deal with every chapter in the state, the district director works with a smaller number of them.
Pragmatically, what this means is that the district director will most likely be the person “gently reminding” chapters to send in their close out information. Going the other direction, you’ll be bringing concerns from your chapters to the rest of the team and making sure the chapters know what’s going on around the state.
Some experiences and/or things that worked for me (This in particular is where Rule 1 applies):
Phone communications are great, I highly recommend them. But they’re also time consuming. Talk to chapter contacts once a month (or more) if you can, but don’t plan to make more than two (or three) calls in a single night. There will always be a few folks who just won’t get off the phone.
Conversely, there are probably going to be a few people who you just can’t get hold of to save your life. That being the case, you may want to consider making up a list of email addresses for all your chapter contacts so you can keep them informed about what’s going on. Start off with the President and State Director. As you find out who more of your chapters’ board members are, add them to your list. This increases the likelihood that somebody in each chapter will pay attention.
Some chapters will never get around to asking you to come to their events. Don’t be afraid to invite yourself. Send an email to one of your contacts (starting with the President and/or State Director) saying something like, “Hey, I’d really like to come to such-and-such project. What time does it start and how do I get there?” (Projects are probably a better thing to show up at than meetings.) Of course, the same rule for attending your own chapter’s project also applies here – don’t even think about trying to attend everything or you’ll burn yourself out.
There’s nothing wrong with holding district meetings during the quarterly conventions. That may give your chapters one more reason to make sure they have someone there. On the other hand, you may want to schedule them as separate events, some chapters may not have representatives at conventions). The two approaches seem to have similar results.
One important note though: Schedule your district meetings as far in advance as possible. (Folks will complain anyhow, but that’s just how it goes.) If you can get chapters to find a meeting location, etc. that’s great, but you do have the option of making your own arrangements. Probably the smartest thing I did in 2007 was when I decided to have a meeting in a central location. When the local chapter didn’t respond, I organized the meeting myself. The chapter was a lot more responsive afterward.
Plan to have your 4th quarter meeting as early as possible in the quarter for two reasons: (A) This way you can also use it as a candidates forum for elections and (B) after the November convention, the Jaycees pretty much shut down until January. (This is one of the reasons I tend to agree with the folks who believe we played a huge prank on ourselves by matching the Jaycee year to the calendar year.)
The job can be a lot of work, but it’s worthwhile.
Serenity
I imagine somebody’s already done something similar to this. After all, it’s been more than two years since Serenity first came to the theaters, and even longer since Firefly went off the air. But ideas for filks follow their own schedule.
(To the tune of The Ballad of Serenity)
Take my show,
Off the air,
Claim the fan base,
Is not there.
I don’t care,
I’m still free
To watch the show on DVD.
Make the TV
Go to black
Say the show
Ain’t coming back.
I don’t care,
I’m still free
To watch the show on DVD.
(bridge)
There’s no show,
I’d rather see,
Next I’ll watch Serenity.
You can’t take the show from me.
Forty-Two
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
I’ve known this day was coming for a while, but I suppose I’ve been hoping for a reprieve of some sort. That’s not how it works of course, but you can’t blame a fellow for having hopes.
You can lay down or put a paper bag over your head if you like, but that won’t help either. The plans have been on file at the local planning office for several years and there was plenty of opportunity to file a protest at the appropriate time so there’s no sense acting all surprised now. If you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own look out. By my estimate the Vogons will be here sometime this afternoon.
I am certain that John understands exactly what this is all about. No doubt he’s already standing on a street corner somewhere with corks in his ears, clutching a towel from Marks and Spencer, trying desperately to hitch a lift.
If you have no idea what I’m going on about, might I suggest some worthwhile reading? (If you prefer, there’s always the movie, but I suggest the older version instead of the new one.) You’d best hurry though; if Ford and Arthur have already nipped off to the pub, then you have less than 10 minutes left. (Last orders, please!)
I’m just astonished this didn’t happen on a Thursday.