Category - Linux

As I've mentioned, adapting to college life has been pretty easy. In fact, almost too easy. I thought it was going to be really angsty and blogworthy like high school, and here I am, disappointed by not being disappointed. I mean, there are tests and things, but that's pretty much just like high school. If you're able to keep yourself afloat on your own two feet (two clichés that mix like oil and water), you'll do fine with your classes (it seems). You just have to make it your priority; that's why you're in college, after all. And if you can do that, then you can shift your focus to extracurricular activities. But if you don't stick your schoolwork, The Beatles can tell you what happens:

But then again:

I have somewhere to go. In fact, I can go wherever I want (within reason or walking distance). That means that college is a lot better than high school when it comes to extracurricular activities. I could never join clubs in high school because I don't drive, and staying after school would cause me to miss my ride. In college, I call the shots, and I can walk (or take a bus) not only to but also fro. So I'm taking advantage of that opportunity by checking out a few of the hundreds of student organizations on campus. Yesterday, Mark, whose blog I found before I started college here, invited me to check out the hacking club, where they're apparently going to teach people how to identify vulnerabilities in web servers. It's not as interesting as I thought it would be, so I don't think I'll follow up on that.

Last night, I went to the first meeting of Gator Freethought. It apparently originated as the Atheist, Agnostic, and Freethinking Student Association, and has adopted a new term to match its new ideals. While freethought is usually associated with atheism and agnosticism, Gator Freethought is not necessarily an atheist or agnostic group. Freethought is about rationally analyzing your worldview rather than sticking to dogma that you might not entirely have a feel for. Among the 50 or so people at the meeting, there were not only atheists and agnostics, but also Christians and Jews who wanted to analyze their own beliefs with a rational eye. Some of them will probably keep their current beliefs, and others will change theirs entirely. There were also people at the meeting who didn't want to identify with any labels. The point of the group is to allow people to think for themselves, discussing and examining their own beliefs and those of others. I enjoyed being in the presence of other atheists and freethinking persons, so I'll be going to the next meeting.

Today, my friend Amanda told my sister and me about some sort of organ donor club. As an afterthought, I went. The group, as it turns out, is called Get Carded, and the idea is to get people to become card-carrying organ donors. I learned quite a few things at the meeting. Donating organs is a good thing. Well, I knew that. But what I didn't know is that people buy into myths that make them hesitant to become organ donors, and that's why there are so few people who aren't selfish with their organs. I ended up volunteering to man the booth that they're going to set up outside the stadium at next week's football game. It's good to know that I'll be helping to save lives. Now that I'm 18, I should probably become an organ donor myself.

I've been busy going to club meetings, but what else? I'll let you in on a secret: I'm not exactly the most social guy in the world. I sometimes find it awkward to talk to, say, the opposite sex? I know, it's really surprising, since you always see bloggers getting chased by ladies. But anyway, going on dates always would have been a problem in high school, because some girls are really shallow and they probably wouldn't like it if you didn't have a "whip" (car) of your own. Being driven to a date by your parents is also pretty lame. But now that everyone's living close together, transportation isn't really an issue, and I can develop my relationship skills... once I find someone worth developing them with.

Have you heard about Glazastik, Russia's new Internet hero? Neither had I.

Here's an 85-minute documentary called Revolution OS. It's a few years old now, but it's still an interesting look at Linux and the free software movement from some of the people who brought it about.

I've been here at the University of Florida for a week now, and classes have started already. It's been a long week, and I've learned a lot quickly. Not in the way of school subjects, mind you, but lessons about college life. But first, let me give you the rundown of my experiences so far.

I've been going here, there, and everywhere, pretty much all on foot. To say that my feet hurt would be an understatement. Actually, it would probably do just fine. The point is, I've been doing a lot of walking. My dorm is pretty much in the center of the campus, but my classes (and indeed, most of the interesting places) are in one corner of the campus, a 15- to 20-minute walk away. I've been hanging out with my sister, who lives around there. We didn't really have anyone to hang out with the first day or so, but we quickly met lots of people and spent much of the week hanging out with them.

Classes started on Thursday. My first college class, at 9:35, was Calculus 3. It was actually a problem solving session or something like that. Apparently classes that have lectures on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays might also meet on Tuesdays or Thursdays with a different teacher or TA to review the material or give quizzes. Yesterday's class was such a session. The TA (I assume) went over a few things we should have known from previous calculus classes. I knew most of it, but I had a hard time recalling it. Even my high-school calculus teacher knew how fast math drips out of your ears.

After that, I had America in the Fifties, an honors class that covers America during the "long fifties" (Nagasaki to Dallas). It sounds like it's going to be pretty hard, so I'd better stay on top of things there. Next, I had Social Geography, which has to do with population patterns and demographic shifts and things like that. It sounds pretty interesting. There are about 100 people in the class, and I had to sit in the nosebleed section because I wasn't as early to class as everyone else.

When my history class unexpectedly got out early, I was sitting around in a busy place with nothing to do. Before I knew it, I was being proselytized to by a Christian guy. Rather than engage in a debate with him, I simply went along with what he was saying to get a sense of his argument. I played the role of the good kid who doesn't worry too much about what God thinks of him. Did you know that since I've lied and stolen things, I'm a liar and a thief? It's true! The guy told me that he was too, and that God punishes people who bad things (Bible citation). So in order to escape damnation, I should accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior (Bible citation). If I don't, I'll go to hell (Bible citation, a parable that I've never heard in my life).

Yesterday was less eventful (in terms of classes) because I only have two classes on Friday. First thing in the morning, I had chemistry along with about 300 other people (including Anh, a girl I met at a bus stop). It seems okay because the teacher (or professor, I guess) has a good sense of humor. ("Although chemistry exams can be hard on students, they are often fatal for grandmothers.") After that, I had my calculus class again, this time with the actual teacher, who gave an introduction to the three-dimensional coordinate system. He's kind of hard to understand because of his accent, but I think I'll be okay if I just study (which is what I spent part of the day doing).

As I mentioned previously, I still can't get online because the people in charge of making sure that students get connected to the Internet in their dorms haven't made it easy for Linux users. (In the past, Linux users had no problem connecting, but this year they've done something different.) I'm using the Wi-Fi in my dorm's common room now. It's kind of a pain to travel so far for an Internet connection, but hopefully, that'll change soon. Mark, a guy I've been talking to online who lives in my dorm, has sent me instructions (written by someone else) for getting it to work. I'll have to try it later.

And now, my advice (and related wisdom) for incoming college students:

• Don't worry about meeting people. You will meet lots of people immediately, even if no one you know from high school is there, get on Facebook and see if anyone from junior high or elementary school is there. You'll make friends with your roommate(s) and neighbors. Meet their friends. Say hi to random people on the street. Before you know it, you'll be friends with your friends' friends' friends. And who knows? People might randomly approach you, too. After all, hundreds or thousands of people are in the same boat as you.
• You will walk a lot. Or, you'll ride your bike or take the bus a lot. If you brought your car, you may or may not drive a lot, depending on how much you cherish the parking space you got. Walking is probably preferable to having a bike because you don't have to worry about someone stealing your legs. But if you have to cover long distances, a bike may be better for you. Either way, you'll probably get in better shape.
• Save money. This should be self-evident. As a Poor College Student®, I can tell you that college is a great way to spend more money than you actually have. I wouldn't recommend trying to juggle college classes and a job during your first semester. Take any money your parents provide for you, and stretch your dollars out. The other day, I went to an event with free pizza, soda, cake, and ice cream. It wasn't the most nourishing meal in the world, but I saved a few bucks, and I got to meet people. See if there are events like that near you.
• Don't sit around doing nothing. You'll probably be proselytized to by someone with religious beliefs that are different from yours. Nobody likes that... unless you buy into what the person is saying, undergo a genuine religious conversion, and celebrate the day that a stranger showed you the light. If you find yourself out of class early, why not read a book or study? Which leads me to...
• Study! That's what you're in college for. Be sure to have some fun, but schoolwork, however boring, comes first. Like high school, some classes are easy, and others are hard, but now, it's all up to you to make sure you do the work. You're probably in college because having a college degree will get you into whatever career you want and will help you get more money. There's an incentive for you.

I'll probably think of more to say, but that's it for now.

Oh yes, one more thing: I have my very own mailbox. Send all letters, cards, postcards, checks, cash, late birthday presents, fan art, fan fiction, early birthday presents, Hershey's Symphony bars, posters, exciting magazines, extra-light 12-string acoustic guitar strings, T-shirts that you think might fit me, fruit bats, orangutans, breakfast cereals, coupons, and everything else to:

[Edit Sun May 04, 2008 22:58 EST (UTC -5): I don't live at this address anymore!]

I'm in college. It's all so weird. I always knew this day would come, but now that it's here, it's really surreal. My sister and I moved into our dorms on Saturday. That's when I met my roommate, Adam, in person (we'd talked online before). I managed to find almost everything I packed, so that's good. Kristen's rooming with one of her best friends, so she's lucky. We spent Saturday night at our aunt's house outside of town, along with our parents. Yesterday, we bought a few more things that we needed, and my family wanted to see our dorms again. When we came back, my roommate had hung up posters of scantily clad women. Real nice to show the family. It was actually pretty funny in retrospect. But anyway, then we said our goodbyes. It was pretty emotional, but we'll definitely be in touch with our parents. We'll also be in touch with each other because we hardly know anyone and it's hard to make friends.

In fact, I'm here in the food court in the student union with my sister. I'm here for the WiFi. I can't get connected in my dorm because the instruction booklet says to call the Internet connection people if you want to know how to connect using Linux. They're swamped right now because everyone is trying to connect, so they're going to call me (maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after that, maybe the day after that...) to schedule an appointment so they can go to my dorm and help me out. Did I mention that the University of Florida is one of the largest in America? Anyway, I have to thank my friend Luke, whom I called, asking for help with connecting to the Internet. After nothing worked, he suggested I try the WiFi in the public areas. He isn't even going here, and he thought of that before me. Way to go, Luke.

Even though there are so many people here, it's been hard to meet people, and it's been stressing out both my sister and me. There are supposed to be

We just saw Amanda, a girl from school, here in the food court. Apparently she's staying in the dorm across the street from me, so we'll have to hang out with her. We're planning to go to the mall tomorrow, so maybe we should invite her. It should be fun. Anyway...

all kinds of events for getting to meet people, but I think they're spread out over the first few weeks of the semester, so none of them have happened yet. So I haven't really had an opportunity for a "Hello, My Name Is..." type of gathering. In fact, my sister and I have pretty much been walking back and forth between our dorms and stopping here at the student union, which is in between. Actually, we did meet a few people at a bus stop outside my dorm, and my sister (who can connect to the Internet in her room) found them on Facebook, so that's good.

I guess that's all I have to say for now. I have more to say, but I can't stay in the food court forever. I've got other things to do... 'cause I'm in college.

In 1947, Life Magazine asked some comic strip artists to draw their characters blindfolded. The results are amusing.

I've been very busy lately, not only getting ready for college, but also having fun. This week will be my last chance to see my friends for a long time. Maybe even a long, long time. I've been out spending time with a lot of them (the ones who aren't working all the time or are already in college, that is). Between going to the beach at night, seeing cheesy movies, checking out bookstores, and bowling, I've hardly had time to think that soon I'll be facing the biggest obstacle I've ever encountered in my life. And that's just how I want it. Ignorance is bliss.

My sister has long wanted to go to South Beach, so yesterday, we got some people (Yamilee, Austin, Luke, Justin, and Lisa) and did it. Austin graciously drove us around; he didn't mind it because he often makes the long, boring drive between here and Florida State University. After we found everyone's houses and got to a parking lot in Miami Beach, we ate lunch on the patio of a restaurant called Cafe des Arts. It was really nice, and since we were in the shade, we didn't die from the heat (well, most of us, anyway). Then, we actually hit the beach for a little while. There were a lot of people there, but it wasn't crazy. I went in the water, which was pretty warm. Later, we dried off and went to Starbucks. We followed that up with some shopping (or, for some of us, walking around in front of shops), until finally, it was getting late, and we went back. I really enjoyed the afternoon (no, we didn't stay for the wild and crazy night life), and I'm glad I got to have fun with some of my friends for one last time.

Backing up the files on your computer is very important. Your mother always told you to do it, but you never have. Until recently, I never had either, but I decided I should definitely start doing it since I have a laptop, which is fragile and could be stolen or what have you. I got a 500 GB SimpleTech external hard drive (designed by Pininfarina) for my sister and me to share. Even though the drive came with backup software for Windows and Mac, it was formatted as NTFS, meaning only Windows could use it. I reformatted it to FAT32 so my sister's Mac and my Linux laptop could both access it. Then I decided I'd probably be better off using a more sophisticated filesystem for my own backups, so I resized the FAT32 partition and made an EXT3 (Linux's filesystem) partition. It was a clumsy solution (Linux apparently can't write to HFS+, OS X's filesystem), and it seemed mess things up. My dad decided it would be best for us to have separate backup hard drives. After that, I wiped everything and reformatted it all as EXT3. I was troubled to find that the only accessible as root. Since the drive was mounted at /media/disk, I fixed it with

sudo chmod -R 777 /media/disk

I then went into the file browser as root (sudo nautilus), went to the drive's properties, and set its permissions so that everybody could read and write it. After that, I didn't have any problems. I was still bothered by the fact that the drive had no label. Given that the drive was located at /dev/sdb1, changing its label to "Backup" was simple enough:

sudo e2label /dev/sdb1 Backup

I don't know how the drive could be in /media and /dev at the same time, so obviously, I don't know a lot. I looked that stuff up on the Ubuntu Forums, which have helped me out immensely over the past 6 months I've been using Linux. There's no way I would have known what to do otherwise.

Actually backing up files was difficult -- at first. I copied and pasted my home folder into the external hard drive, but some files refused to be copied. When I was still using FAT32 for the whole drive, I found out how to tar entire directories, so I tried that. Five minutes in, I realized that FAT32 doesn't support files more than 4 GB, so I calmly waited another 45 minutes for the backup to finish, only to delete the resulting archive. When I finally had the whole drive formatted as EXT3, I looked into SBackup, a GNOME utility for backing up and restoring files. I backed up the folders it recommended that I back up, and it took about 45 to 50 minutes. The program is designed to run backups in the background, but I didn't want to partake in too much CPU-intensive activity while it was busy. Restoring files should be just as easy, but I hope I'll never have to. (I probably will, though.)

Now I must pack. I have to pack pretty much everything I own into little boxes by tonight, and I haven't started yet. The next time I blog, I probably won't be at home. I'll be gone.

"The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focuses only on sound, not songs."

Here are Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature.

Have you made your guess yet? Time is running out. The Change Contest ends tomorrow at 23:59 UTC-5 (World of Stuff time)!

Whoa, it's August 10. How did that happen? Do you realize that I leave home for college on August 18? Something has to be done in the meantime. But what? A party, of course. Normally, I don't like to mention parties I'm having before I have them, but pretty much everyone I know is invited, so I think things will be okay. This party is going to be pretty big. It's not just for my sister and me, who are going to college, but it's also for my grandparents, who are also moving away. I can't even imagine how much food there's going to be.

Anyway, today was my second-to-last day of work. I've been working at the office of a suit company since October 2003 (except for a 17-month period when the extra help wasn't needed -- admittedly a big "except"). I only work one day a week, and since last year, my sister has been working there too. As you might imagine, I don't make a lot of money, but I save most of it. I'm really going to miss the great people I work with. And I'm going to miss having an income, that's for sure. I don't think I'll be able to juggle college classes and a "real" job right away, so I'll need some time to get used to the whole college experience. I just hope that, when the time comes, I'll be able to find a job I like.

Printing has been a big issue. I hadn't thought much about it, but I might just need a printer to print papers and things. Finding a printer that works well with Linux is kind of tricky. You really have to do your homework with resources such as the OpenPrinting Database, but even that site doesn't have information on many new printers. After finding a few printers that might work, it became clear that the best option would be to use the printer I already have, an HP LaserJet 1300n. I've used it under Ubuntu with success. The OpenPrinting Database says that this printer "mostly" works with Linux. Apparently the driver I use doesn't allow printing at the maximum resolution. I've never needed to have anything very high resolution; it's a black-and-white printer, after all. So it should continue to work just fine for me.

I thought college would be so great because we wouldn't have summer reading, which I've dreaded throughout my years and years of schooling. Imagine my surprise when all incoming freshmen were assigned to read Mountains Beyond Mountains, the uplifting, true story of Dr. Paul Farmer, whose mission in life is to cure tuberculosis in impoverished countries. Yes, I'm one of those people who always read the books that are assigned, no matter how much I may not want to. I did read it. I wonder whether my teachers (sorry, professors) will actually ask questions about the book. Maybe they'll just use it as a tool to see which students read what they're supposed to. In any case, the author of the book will be paying a visit to the university in October, which I have to admit is pretty interesting. In fact, I have to admit that the book is pretty interesting. That Dr. Farmer is a selfless guy with a lot of resolve. It would be cool to meet him, that's for sure.

From Damn Interesting: An article about circuits that are programmed to evolve. Whoa. What's more, they work in a way that we don't entirely understand. Whoa.

Here are some examples of "guerilla" (or just plain unorthodox) advertising.

Change is good*, but the Change Contest is better. Make your guess by Saturday!

It's August 6. I thought today sounded like an important date or something. Is it my birthday? No, I just had one of those. Is it my anniversary? That would be unlikely. It's not even garbage day. I was stumped, so I did what any blogger would do and checked the archives. According to several old posts, today is my Dvorakaversary: I've been using the Dvorak keyboard for five years today. My fingers sure are thanking me right now. Using QWERTY really hurts my fingers after a while, but I never have problems with Dvorak. And now that I have a computer that is all mine and no one else's, I don't even have to have the QWERTY keymap loaded. It's a little thing, but it means a lot to me.

Also, a year ago yesterday, a bunch of ducks showed up in the driveway.

I've been cleaning my room some more. What, you thought I was done? I've barely made a dent. (Okay, I've made a pretty big dent.) I can't believe all the stuff I've come across: things I loved, things I thought I'd lost, things I don't remember at all. Most of it, though, is junk, and I'm giving it away (or throwing it away). I realize that I've just said this, but it's still true. Among the things I've found is a journal that I kept semi-regularly from 1999 to 2001. I guess it goes to show that I've always had a propensity to write in a semi-regular fashion. That journal is one of the few things I'm saving as I empty out my room before leaving for college.

Who needs spring cleaning, anyway? August cleaning is where it's at. In August, I stand at the threshold of everything. It's a time to start anew. I started blogging regularly in August 2003. Back then, I was concerned about starting high school. During this, my fifth August, things have come full circle, but in a much bigger way. I almost can't believe I was so nervous about high school when college is looming like a giant thing that looms. I'm really in for a big change. Who knows what kind of person I'll be next August? Hopefully one who's working a kick-awesome job while pulling a 4.0 and being chased by da ladiez.

Read about Dead Sodas that you might remember from the past few decades.

In my last post, I mentioned a political quiz that would tell you which of the 2008 presidential candidates are most in line with your views. Now here's a really bad way to decide who you should vote for: which operating system their campaign site's server is running. But it is interesting to note that 69% of Democratic candidates' sites are powered by Linux, while 70% of Republican candidates rely on Windows.

This is the first post I've written (partly) in a recliner. Thanks, laptop!

* For cliché purposes only

My laptop shipped on Monday. The delivery was supposed to take 3-5 days, but it arrived yesterday. My sister's MacBook arrived last Monday, but my dad wanted us to get ours at the same time. So last night, we opened them. Here's my Dell E1505N laptop with Ubuntu pre-installed.

There's no Windows on this laptop; it didn't even come with a Windows CD. That's perfectly fine with me because I'd rather not give money to Microsoft. It belongs to Dell's new N-Series of laptops and desktops, which come with open-source operating systems (Ubuntu and FreeDOS). Here's the page on Dell's site where you can buy PCs with Ubuntu pre-installed.

I'm really enjoying the laptop, which my friend Luke christened "Day Tripper" (It's a Beatles song, and it describes a computer that you can take around, like on a day trip? Ha ha? Well, I liked it.) Though I haven't been using it for 24 hours yet, I thought I'd give my impressions of this laptop. I've never had a laptop of my own before, but I've used a few.

The first thing that was pretty annoying was getting on the Wi-Fi network. Ubuntu will prompt you for a keyring password every time you log in, and that gets annoying after a while. If the keyring password is the same as your user password, install libpam-keyring (sudo apt-get install libpam-keyring) and add the following lines to the end of /etc/pam.d/gdm (sudo gedit /etc/pam.d/gdm):

auth optional pam_keyring.so try_first_pass
session optional pam_keyring.so

If you set a different keyring password, delete the keyring in the Keyring Manager. Then, when you connect to the network again, enter the network information like you did the first time, and then enter your user password as the password. Then you can follow the previous steps for great success.

That was the only real issue I had. I haven't encountered any bugs or other weird things; then again, I haven't used the battery yet. Supposedly, the battery life indicator can be pretty inaccurate at times, but I haven't had a chance to find out for myself. I'd heard good things about the keyboard. It is very good. Even the touchpad is good -- I might even actually get used to it. The only thing I needed to do was disable the tap-to-click feature (it's very easy to trigger it by accident). I edited the xorg.conf file (sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf) and in the section for the touchpad, I added the line Option "MaxTapTime" "0".

Another thing was that I wanted to change the computer's name. "dell" is a very boring name. I went to System -> Administration -> Network -> General and changed the host name (to daytripper, of course). After that, I logged out, and the change took effect.

(Don't think that I'm a Linux wizard and that I instinctively knew how to do all that. I had to look it all up.)

The computer also comes with "MediaDirect" functionality that apparently allows you to play CDs without booting into Windows. Or something like that. Since this computer doesn't have Windows at all, I wasn't sure how it would work. It turns out that if you have the computer on and you press the MediaDirect button, it will start Rhythmbox (the default music player in Ubuntu). The buttons in front of the computer can be used to skip tracks, stop, play, pause, change the volume, and all that stuff.

Today I've pretty much been moving files from my old computer(s) to this one. It's been going okay, my only limitation being that I'm using a 512 MB flash drive to do the work. Apparently they get worn out pretty easily? Anyway, for future file moving (there's still quite a bit to do), I think I'll burn them onto CDs. It's a more robust method of transferring files, and it leaves a physical backup in case things go sour.

After I wrote that, the screen froze. It probably had to do with Beryl. Luckily, this computer boots (or reboots) quickly.

Anyway, here are the obligatory specs.

• Dell Inspiron E1505N
• Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn"
• Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5600 (2MB/1.83GHz/667MHz)
• 15.4 Inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WXGA+
• 2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
• 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 TurboCache
• 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 24X Combo CD-RW/DVD
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
• 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

So far, this laptop is great, and I'd look forward to buying a computer (without Windows) from Dell again.

Here are 15 Useless or Even Dangerous Eyesight Myths.

Even if you're not into baseball, this Java applet comparing this season's baseball teams' salaries and performance is very interesting. Be sure to slide the slider along the top to see changes over time.

I went searching for a job yesterday, but I didn't inquire within anywhere. In the shopping center by my house, I saw three places that were hiring: a cell phone store, a health food store, and a dollar store. Not ideal places to work at all, but I do need the money. I probably shouldn't apply anywhere yet because if they try to contact me next week, I'll be out of town. Plus, I turn 18 in a few weeks, and since all of the jobs probably have an age limit of 18, I might as well give it some thought and apply later. In any case, I'd say I'd have the best shot at the dollar store, if only because I wouldn't be selling things. (Incidentally, I saw my friend Bryce working at that dollar store a few weeks ago. Did he quit?)

If you've been a Linux user for any amount of time, you've probably heard of Beryl. If not, Beryl is a window manager that allows you to customize a number of special effects relating to windows, such as transparency and animations for minimizing and unminimizing. Linux window managers typically support the ability to have multiple desktops or workspaces, meaning you can have have different windows open in different workspaces, each with its own desktop. Beryl takes the concept a step further by showing the four desktops as faces of a cube that you can rotate. It's a great way to get used to the idea of having multiple desktops, and it looks really cool. (Here's a screenshot from Wikipedia.)

I didn't think my computer would be fast or powerful enough to run Beryl, and it seemed like a lot of work to install. Then I noticed it was in Ubuntu's software repositories, meaning that I could install it (or uninstall it) with just one click. So I went for it, and it works pretty well. Beryl is beta software, so the bugs haven't entirely been ironed out yet, but the visual effects make computing fun. I don't go crazy with them; they're kind of subtle. Plus, they make for a great alternative to the visual effects in OS X and Vista (are there any in Vista?) because Beryl is endlessly customizable and itself has a number of extra plugins.

I should mention that Beryl is a fork of the Compiz project, which is apparently basically the same but less bleeding-edge. It seems that the two projects are in the process of merging back into one. I don't know when that's going to be complete or what the new name will be, but in the mean time, you can check out more Beryly goodness by watching this screencast demonstrating a lot of Beryl's effects. And if you want to give Beryl a try, switching to Linux is easier than ever.

From the Social Security Administration, which keeps track of these sorts of things, here's a list of the most popular names for twins born last year. All of the top 10 pairs of names are alliterative. As a twin, I feel sorry for those kids. They'll end up with some individuality issues or something.

Here are 10 things that have been said by nightmare web design clients. Things like: "Black on white is boring. How about hot pink on lime green? And can we make the logo spin? And Arial is boring, let's use Comic Sans."

Do you know what rights you have in a police encounter? Take the Flex Your Rights Quiz. I got 4 out of 8 right.

My graduation party was on Saturday night. It was also for my sister and our friends Nick, Mark, Michael, and Kelli. As you can probably imagine, there were a lot of people there. It was a little surprising to me because most of the people I invited didn't go (it's the summer now, so everbody's off doing different things). It turned out that a lot of the people were family members. Also, Kelli invited half the world, so they were there too. Half the world doesn't like to dance, it seems. I'm with them on that one. Anyway, I had a good time, I'm glad to report. It was nice seeing everyone there, and I thank those of you who managed to make it.

I'm still eagerly awaiting my laptop, which I think I'll call Day Tripper (thanks, Luke). It hasn't shipped yet, it seems, but I just ordered it last Tuesday. I've never been that crazy about laptops (especially the whole touchpad thing -- I'll have to get a USB mouse), but I'll have to get used to them because I have no other choice. If you're wondering what a laptop running Linux out of the box looks like, check out some photos from some guy who just bought one. (It took the guy about 8 minutes to get up and running on his new laptop. Take that, Windows.) I, of course, will take lots of pictures of my laptop when I get it.

Hey guys in the South Florida metropolitan area: I have over 400 National Geographics for sale. You want to buy them.

I've previously written about the Plymouth Belvedere that was buried in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a time capsule on June 15, 1957, to be opened 50 years later. On June 15, 2007, the car was unveiled. Water had seeped into its underground bunker, causing the car to rust almost completely. Here's the obligatory photo gallery. As part of the original publicity stunt, the person who correctly guessed what Tulsa's population would be in 2007 would win the car that year (unless they were dead, in which case it would go to their heirs). However, the search is on for the list of entrants and their guesses, which was stored on microfilm inside the car. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

Remember when the HD DVD process key, a 128-bit integer, was made public? The incident led to a number of cease-and-desists while people questioned the supposed right to have ownership of a number. Well, now you can get your very own integer that you can forbid other people from distributing! Here's mine: 01 56 95 41 46 ED 8B 3C 45 B9 FD EB 3B CE AC 38. Don't copy it, or I'll sue you.

When you're going to college, you should really have a laptop. That's what I've been told, anyway. It would come in handy for writing, research, note-taking, and, of course, entertainment. You can't forget entertainment. To survive anywhere these days, you need a computer, and if you're on the go, you need a laptop. I've known this for a long time.

Until around six months ago, I didn't give much of a thought about the operating system that my future laptop would run. Without question, it would be Windows, and probably Windows Vista at that. Anyway, since I've switched to Linux, I had thought that finding a good laptop would be a challenge. Laptops themselves are a dime a dozen (not literally), but since I don't know that much about computer hardware (or Linux), installing Linux on a laptop might be difficult.

My dad took me to some stores to show me some laptops so I could get an idea of what I wanted, but I knew that installing Linux over Windows would not be the best way to go. Besides the fact that I don't want to give Microsoft my money at all (let alone for a product I'd get rid of immediately), I would need to have a laptop with Linux pre-installed and the guarantee that everything would Just Work. If my computer crashed because I needed such and such a driver or the ATI or the wireless thingy wouldn't start, I wouldn't know where to turn to. Generally, if a company sells a computer with software on it, that's sort of a guarantee that the software will be compatible with the hardware. Although in this case the playing field would be limited a great deal, I decided it was worth it.

Ubuntu is the Linux distribution I've been using, and I've decided to stick with it because there's little hassle involved and everything Just Works. Probably the foremost company that specializes in pre-installed Ubuntu systems is System76. Although I've heard lots of good things about their products and their service, I couldn't help but notice that their prices were quite a bit higher than the equivalent Windows systems I could find in stores. But because they offered full support for Ubuntu, I decided that System76 would be the way to go.

Then something happened: Dell decided to sell computers with Ubuntu pre-installed. Although they currently have only one laptop model with Ubuntu pre-installed, I found that I could get a better computer for less money than if I had bought from System76. Besides that, I could help show a major computer vendor that there really is a demand for Linux. On Tuesday night, my dad and I were going over the specs I wanted, and I found that the cost would come out to $1,083 before taxes and shipping. So my dad wanted to know if Dell offered student discounts. I looked around on the site but couldn't find anything easily. He decided to give them a call.

Before I knew it, my dad was buying the laptop I wanted over the phone. After going over the specs with the sales guy, I picked up another phone so I could hear too. The guy said it was his first Ubuntu sale and that he didn't know much about it, although he was interested in finding out. He warned us that the computer came with no anti-virus software, and that's when we explained how Linux isn't nearly as susceptible to viruses as Windows. He was impressed and asked us to keep in touch so he could learn more about running Linux.

I wasn't sure if I wanted 1 GB or 2 GB of RAM; 1 GB would be decent for now, but I want the computer to last at least four years, so I need to make sure it'll still be decent tomorrow. So the guy doubled the RAM from 1 GB to 2 GB for free. My dad asked if there were any discounts, so the guy gave a discount and made the shipping free. Throughout the whole process, the sales guy was very amiable and didn't try to push anything on us that would have cost more money. The final cost after tax came out to $1,088.63. He said it would ship no later than Tuesday, June 26. Contrary to my expectations, buying a computer from Dell over the phone was a pleasant experience.

After that, we bought my sister's computer. She wanted a Mac so it would match her new iPod. I don't have anything to say about that.

Now, one big question remains. What should I name my computer? Before switching to Linux, the concept of formally naming a computer was unknown to me, but it seems that there's even been an entire RFC written on the topic. Apparently it's common if you have a group of computers to follow a theme with their names. Even if you only have one, you're supposed to give your next one a name in the same vein, or something like that. That's what the cool people do. Anyway, it's got to be something clever and not dumb. Any ideas?

Here are one guy's memories of working at Microsoft in the early '90s.

When people switch from Windows to Linux, they're often concerned about things that they could do in Windows that they can't in Linux. However, it's a two-way street. Here are things you can do in Linux that you can't do on Windows.