Where Are All The Linux User Groups

There seems to be a lack of Linux user groups in my geographical area. For that matter, I don't even personally know anyone that uses Linux. I'm just a lone Linux user, yearning for someone to talk to about my passion. I live north of Boston, Mass, and have spent the last 2 days scouring the Internet for user groups. This is not the first time I've looked around. I've looked before and didn't find anything I was interested in, so I just forgot about it for a while. I know that there are several in Massachusetts, but most of them are 20 miles or more from me, with the majority being even further away. I know, 20 miles is nothing, but to get from my house to a major highway, RT128 or 95, takes 20 friggin minutes alone. There's a group in Chelmsford, Mass, but that would be a 45 minute drive for me, each way. There's a few Boston groups, but I don't do Boston unless I really have to. Anything south of my house is evil, know what I mean? Then there's Worcester, Mass. Lesse, that's probably an hour and a half one way. Don't think so. There's the North Shore Computer Society. They meet in Peabody, Mass. That's more realistic, but it doesn't look as though they do Linux. They're web site mentions help for Windows and Mac with no mention of Linux. Then there's New Hampshire and Maine. I think there are 3 groups in New Hampshire and maybe 1 in Maine. Those 2 states are pretty much out of the question. It's just not reasonable for me to drive 60 to 100 miles one way for a 1-2 hour get together. So I guess that if I want a local group I'll have to start my own. Interested? If you live to the north of Boston in the Beverly/Salem area, and this area is convenient enough for you, leave a comment or e-mail me. Maybe we can get something started. Meanwhile, I just keep plying the web in my own little Linux world.

Time to reinstall Windows XP - Part 3

Five updates so far. Seems to me that the updates used to be endless. I'm back at the desktop after a 22 second bootup. Still hard to beat in terms of fast booting. My fastest booting Linux distro is probably in the 40-45 second range. Looking good here. Updates appear to be done for a while, all my hardware has been configured and is working, I can surf the web and send/receive e-mail. I still need to install Java and Flash/Shockwave. I'm not sure what the best way to do that is. I just remembered, I have IE7. Wonder if Flash and Java will work with it? Wow! Flash was easy! I googled 'test flash' and picked the first Adobe page listed. Popup said 'click to run activex' . I do and Flash/Shockwave is installed automatically. Couldn't be easier. On to Java. That turns out to be a little more involved, but non the less simple. So, Java and Flash work with IE7. Nice! Whether you like it or not, surfing the web is barren without them. I went back to Linux for a while. Needed to get e-mail and such, but I'm back, screwing around with XP. Windows is now telling me that updates are available. This will be the sixth update, I believe. There's only one update, a security update for IE7. I'll get it and be done with it and I don't even need to reboot. That's different for Windows. I haven't done much tweaking on this install yet. I ran msconfig, despised by some, and stopped a few programs from starting at boot. The Java update scheduler and three items related to my NVidia card. When I rebooted one of the NVidia applets was back. I'm not going to worry about it. Let it be. I did, however, add a printer. Our Epson Stylus Color 880 is connected to a computer that runs Fedora and serves as a print server of sorts as well as a place for use to back up to and there's a very small web site that I've been playing with. I used the usual 'add printer' option from the printers window and installed the Epson no problem. Something just occured to me. I lied about the hardware being all set. Still haven't got the correct USB 2.0 drivers so that device needs attention. Last time I tried to update the drivers for my USB I said it didn't work and that I would probably have to wait until I did a few updates. What do you know, after the six updates I tried updating the USB driver and it worked. Windows found the correct drivers and installed them. Now all my hardware is good to go. My work here may be done. Unless there's more updates. I can't imagine. Guess I can go play now.

Later that day: Glenn installs Windows Media Player updates which will bring version to 11. Pretty nice interface. Won't work with my M4P files though. Am I really going to have to install ITunes. I don't wanna! Hmmmm.... Gotta restart the computer before I get to play with Media Player. Guess that's the price you pay for Windows.

Time to reinstall Windows XP - Part 2

This is the second part of my notes on the reinstallation of WindowsXP. As I had stated, Windows was slowing down considerably and I just wasn't satisfied with the performance at all. So on to Windows updates 3.

Third update. This is the big one. Service Pack 2. Gonna take a while so I'd better fire up Freecell. Guarantee I'll have to reboot after this one. Ok, done. An honest 15-20 minutes. And I lost at solitaire. Anyhow, off to reboot yet again. If I don't, that pesky little reminder will keep bothering me. Don't want that! Ok, back up and running after the reboot. This time booting was about 25 seconds, however, this is where you choose new settings. I turn on Automatic Updates and we make it to the desktop. Now my computer 'might be at risk'. The security center is open in the middle of the screen. There is no virus protection found, so I click 'recommendations' and tell Windows that 'I have an antivirus program that I'll monitor myself'. Security Center seems satisfied with that. Automatic Updates is already doing it's job. There are 2 updates ready for my computer. Oh, and I need to restart for the updates to take effect. Ok. Don't know what the updates were though. I reboot and in 20 seconds after choosing Windows from my boot menu I'm back at the desktop. Pretty respectful boot time. Don't think you can ask for much more. Hold everything! There's still more updates available. That rascal Automatic Updates is at it again! Wowzers! 66 updates! I don't have time! But I'll do it anyhow. So here we are, do I want to install Internet Explorer 7? What the heck, I can always reinstall Windows if I don't like it, right, so I install it. This is taking a while I'll tell ya. Oh oh! Another reboot. Dang! Back again. That bootup took 20-22 seconds I'd say. Still not too bad. But this post is getting long. Guess I'll create part III, because I bet we ain't done yet.

Time to reinstall Windows XP - Part 1

I decided that I was unhappy with the performance my most recent install of Windows XP, which is probably 3-4 months old. I like Windows and have always used it. It's a nice OS, but I rarely use it at all these days. I use Fedora Core 6 Linux for 99% of my computer needs. But anyhow, off we go to get the ultimate XP setup! Well, as long as it works well I'll be satisfied. I'm keeping a log of the install in a text file on the XP desktop and will dump the text here as I go along. Here's what I have so far:

9:34 AM 1/18/2007 - Install Windows XP on my computer.

Booted with XP disk. Formatted first partition with FAT32.
Installed the OS.
Rebooted.

Devices: Audio, USB and Video not recognized.
All others appear to be ok.
What to do first?
NVidia GeForce FX5200 128MB/AGP video card.
Display looks good but moving windows around is very choppy.
Resolution set to 1024x768.
Using hardware wizard get's nothing.
Let's try the NVidia cd that came with the card.
That worked well. The hardware wizard said click 'back' if you have the manufacturer's cd, so I did and the wizard found the driver automatically. No need to go with the NVidia install off of the cd.

Audio Controller. Tried 'update driver' in the Device Manager. Perfect! It found the driver for the on-board C-Media AC97 audio controller. No need for an install cd.

USB Controller. No luck with the Device Manager on this one. Can't find drivers. Probably have to wait until Windows updates are almost complete before this works.

Display is still choppy. Think I'll reboot and see if that changes.
Oh yeah, it changed! Back to 800x600! I used the NVidia control panel in the tray to change it back to 1024x768. Also had to change to 32 bit color. Now display is pretty good.

Guess it's time to go into the Windows Update phase of the new install.
No! Decided to download and install CCleaner, SpyBot and Adaware.

Installed Adaware and updated program, ran it and here's what I got.

Ad-Aware SE Build 1.06r1
Logfile Created on:Thursday, January 18, 2007 10:01:04 AM
Created with Ad-Aware SE Personal, free for private use.
Using definitions file:SE1R145 17.01.2007
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

References detected during the scan:
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
Alexa(TAC index:5):10 total references
MRU List(TAC index:0):17 total references
Tracking Cookie(TAC index:3):4 total references
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

Summary Of This Scan
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
Total scanning time:00:00:19.484
Objects scanned:76788
Objects identified:14
Objects ignored:0
New critical objects:14

All this on a new Windows installation that's barely 30 minutes old and has been actively on the Internet 3 or 4 times, and that was to set my home page and download the three programs above. Ok, that was Adaware. Now SpyBot 'Search and Destroy'. That scan apparently found 2 items that AdAware missed. Another instance of Alexa and a 'mediaplex' cookie. No big deal, but WTF? 30 minutes? Geesh! No wonder I use Linux. CCleaner found 18MB of junk and 10 registry keys that are trash so I get rid of all of it. Why so much junk on a fresh new barely used install? This has always been the case when I install Windows XP. I find it interesting, don't you?

That's enough of that crap for now. Onward to the Windows updates!

First update. Trust Microsoft and install Windows Update. Accept the suggested updates.

* Update for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.0 and WinHTTP 5.1 (KB842773)
* Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool (KB892130)

Reboot.

Second update. 18 updates available. I install them all. I'm a trusting soul. At least the computer seem snappy up to this point.

* Q329048: Security Update
* Q323255: Security Update (Windows XP)
* Q329390: Security Update
* Q329115: Security Update (Windows XP)
* 329170: Security Update
* 811630: Critical Update (Windows XP)
* 810577: Security Update
* 814078: Security Update (Microsoft Jscript version 5.6, Windows 2000, Windows XP)
* Q329441: Critical Update
* Security Update for Windows XP (815021)
* 817606: Security Update (Windows XP)
* 823559: Security Update for Microsoft Windows
* Security Update for Windows XP (329834)
* Security Update for Windows XP (KB828741)
* Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 6 (KB834707)
* 810833: Security Update (Windows XP)
* Security Update for Windows XP (KB835732)
* Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - January 2007 (KB890830)

Time to reinstall my GRUB bootloader for Fedora and the other Linux distros. Booted off of the Fedora install DVD. The bootloader restore went off without a hitch. Got my boot menu back and all is well. At this point in the installation and configuration of Windows Xp the boot time for XP is about 20 seconds. That's pretty damn quick! At that point the Windows 'welcome' sound plays and the desktop is about ready. I have to admit that I don't have a Linux distro installed that boots that fast.

Third update. Next post.

installing Opera 9.1 in Fedore Gnome

I just downloaded and installed Opera 9.1 for Linux. Another easy task. I'm using it to write this blog post. I downloaded the .tar.gz version and the .rpm version. I moved them to /opt and decided to install the .tar.gz. As root, I typed tar xfvz op[tab]. Typing the first letter or two of the filename fills in the rest. Better than trying to remember the full name and much easier. This is the full command:
[root@dad opt\>#tar xfvz opera-9.10-20061214.6-shared-qt.i386-en.tar.gz
That unpacked the archive into it's own folder under /opt. Now I've learned to try these things in a terminal. If there are errors and /or the program fails to run, there's usually some good diagnostic output. So still as root, I changed to Opera's new folder and typed, in a terminal ./opera. Here's the output from the terminal.

ERROR: ld.so: object 'libjvm.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object 'libawt.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
** Message: plugin_get_value 1 (1)
** Message: plugin_get_value 2 (2)
** Message: plugin_get_value 1 (1)
** Message: plugin_get_value 2 (2)
** Message: plugin_get_value 1 (1)
** Message: plugin_get_value 2 (2)
** Message: plugin_get_value 1 (1)
** Message: plugin_get_value 2 (2)
** Message: plugin_get_value 1 (1)
** Message: plugin_get_value 2 (2)
(process:3594): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: gtype.c:2240: initialization assertion failed, use IA__g_type_init() prior to this function
(process:3594): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_clipboard_get_for_display: assertion `GDK_IS_DISPLAY (display)' failed
Adobe FlashPlayer: gtk_clipboard_get(GDK_SELECTION_PRIMARY); failed. Trying to call gtk_init(0,0);

After that fiasco Opera appeared on my screen and here I am. The first thing I did was to test the operation of Flash and Java. Flash works, Java doesn't. I think I'll try to figure out why I get the ld.so/libjvm.so error too. Looks like it might be related to Java, so I'll get Java working and run Opera from a terminal again to see if the output has changed. But that means that I have to end this post here for now, because I'll need to exit Opera to make the changes, or at least reload it when the changes are made.

I made changes. I linked Java to the /opt/opera/java folder and /opt/opera/plugins folder and it didn't work. Since I don't feel like beating myself up this morning I decided that this is enough effort. I can't get Java to work and I've looked for help on the web, but my patience is short for that sort of thing. I know that if I try hard enough I can get it to work, but not now. I gave up on the .tar.gz install of Opera and deleted it. Then I installed the .rpm version, like this:
rpm -Uvh opera-9.10-20061214.6-shared-qt.i386-en.rpm

That install was quick. An advantage of the .rpm install is that there is now a menu entry for Opera under /applications/Internet. But when I run Opera there's no terminal output to look at. Tested Java and Flash. Same thing. Flash works and Java doesn't. Gonna have to look some more.

Trying Debian Etch Linux - Part III

I think that the default Debian fonts are ugly. I don't know if it's just the rendering that is the problem or the fonts themselves. I played with several included fonts. It seems that they all suck, but I don't really have the patience to try any more. I've downloaded an RPM package called webcore-fonts-1.3-1.noarch.rpm. Since it's 'noarch' it should be fine for any distro, right? I'll install this pack and see what I get. Hey! Apparently Debian doesn't support RPM. Foiled again! Found some help in the Ubuntu Forums. Someone says 'apt-get install msttcorefonts'. Those will be the Microsoft True Type fonts. I did, but it looks like I need to log out and in. That's the ticket. Now I have a few more fonts to choose from. I grabbed 'verdana'. One of my favorites, but the fonts still look shitty. I'm not satisfied with the overall look of Debian Etch. I'm sure that I just need to try harder. Maybe change a theme or something. For now, I'll reboot and have a look. After rebooting I see that nothing changed. Still looks crappy. On to other stuff for now. It's not important.

Trying Debian Etch Linux - Part II

So I left off with getting my EXT3 and FAT32 partitions mounted at boot time. When I came back to Debian I dove right in to getting the NTFS thing happening. I installed the NTFS-3G stuff for NTFS support. Now I'm looking at making sure support for NTFS is there and what an /etc/fstab entry looks like when one uses NTFS-3G. Hmmm. NTFS-3G or NTFS support does not look to be enabled yet. I imagined that it would be there just by installing NTFS-3G and the dependencies. After looking at the NTFS-3G web site I decided to just try mounting my Windows Vista folder. I added the following line to /etc/fstab: '/dev/hda6 /media/vista ntfs-3g defaults 0 0', saved the file and exited the editor. Then, in a terminal as root, typed 'mount /media/vista'. It worked. So now I'll add the other two NTFS partitions and be done with NTFS-3G, assuming that they are mounted at boot time next reboot. If not, back to the documentation. When I rebooted and the NTFS partitions did in fact mount automatically at boot. Good good.

Installing Firefox 2, Adobe FlashPlayer and Java
Here's an outline of how I got Java and Flash working in Debian Etch. Firefox 2, don't think so.

I downloaded all three and moved them to /opt. First I extracted Firefox. Command 'tar xfvz firefox-2.0.0.1.tar.gz' Then I tried running Firefox from a terminal. Previous experience tells me that it might not run until I install dependencies. It doesn't work. Errors in the terminal output tell me I need libstdc++.so.5. Wonder how to install that in Debian? I'm a Fedora user! In Fedora I'd use yum install so I try 'apt-get install libstdc++.so.5'. That yields nothing. I turn to Synaptic. Search in Synaptic reveals libstdc++5. Close, so I install it and try running Firefox2 from the terminal again and get this note: (firefox-bin:4080): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:. What's up here? I've tried to get Firefox 2 working and apparently I've failed. Looking through the Debian User Forums it appears that Firefox 2 doesn't work for Debian. There's talk of something called 'IceWeasel' as an alternative. Apparently a Firefox 2 clone for Debian. I'll do that later, maybe.

Installing Java in Debian

I installed Java by downloading the binary package and moving it to /opt. From there I just ran it to extract/install and made links for libjavaplugin_oji.so to the Mozilla and Firefox plugin folders, like this:
ln -s /opt/jre1.5.0_10/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and
ln -s /opt/jre1.5.0_10/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins

That's it. Ran Firefox, tested Java, it works. Done.

Installing Flash 9

I installed Flash Player 9 by downloading the FP9 installer from Adobe Labs. Moved the file to /opt and unpacked the archive. From there I just copied libflashplayer.so to the Mozilla and Firefox plugin folders. Ran Firefox, tested Flash, it works. Done.

Trying Debian Etch Linux

Last Wednesday I downloaded and burned a boot iso 'network install' of Debian Etch Linux. I was bored with computers and needed something new to play around with. As I recall, the download was small, only about 125MB, so that part was quick on the good old broadband connection. When I rebooted the computer the iso did it's thing and after I answered a few logical questions off it went to internet land to fetch the rest of the install. The whole process took about an hour to an hour and a half. Booting into Debian's Gnome desktop for the first time was nothing exciting, probably because I've done this so many times before with so many other distros. I wanted to outline the steps I've taken so far to configure my desktop, so here's what I've done so far, and I might add that all the info I got was from the Debian Users' web forums. Great help over there.

Installed the NVidia driver, done as root

1. apt-get update && apt-get install nvidia-kernel-source module-assistant nvidia-settings
2. Switch to a VT with CTRL+ALT+F1
3. /etc/init.d/gdm stop
4. m-a prepare && m-a a-i nvidia
5. modprobe nvidia && echo nvidia >> /etc/modules
6. apt-get install nvidia-glx
7. Make sure the nvidia driver is in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. If not, change it.
8. etc/init.d/gdm restart (Restart the Gnome Desktop Manager)

At this point, I had a working NVidia driver but Beryl wasn't working even though it was installed (thought that I had already installed NVidia drivers), so I installed it again using directions on the Debian User forum for downloading and running a script. Worked like a champ and Beryl works now.

Installed a printer

Actually, since my server 'Oldendorff' is running Fedora, the printer seemed to be automatically 'discovered' and it basically just worked. I don't think I actually set anything up but it prints. Works 'out of the box'.
Static IP address

I prefer to have static ip addresses for the computers on my home network. Most people probably don't need static ip's. I changed the ip address to static and added all the networked computers' ip addresses to /etc/hosts. Networking works pretty well. The one thing that I notice is that there's an icon in the top tray that says there's no network connection. Funny, internet works as does network browsing. What's up with that?

E-Mail
Yesterday evolution didn't work after I configured my e-mail addresses. I didn't see any way to get mail. The icon at the top of the e-mail client was greyed out. Tonight I found a menu item that said 'work online'. I clicked it and all was well. Now that works and the icon is not greyed out.

USB Thumb Drive
Plugged that baby in, it was automatically mounted and Nautilus opened the folder. Desktop showed icons for the drive and a cdrom, both related to the thumb drive, so that 'just works'.

Playing a music CD
Popped in a Clapton CD. Sound Juicer opened, read the online cddb and got the correct disk info. Did not automatically play the disc, but that's preferential anyway. Works 'out of the box'.

DVD Movie
Popped in a Santana DVD and DVD Menu (totem?) opened but wouldn't play the disc. Error message states: 'An error occured. The source seems encrypted and can't be read. Are you trying to play an encrypted DVD without libdvdcss?' Probably. Maybe I'll see about installing libdvdcss then. Looked like installing Ogle, using Synaptic, would get me libdvdcss, but not true. After installing Ogle Totem still wouldn't play the Santana DVD. Next! Ok, added a source tree to /etc/apt/sources.list. Synaptic didn't like it all. A million warnings. Went through with installing libdvdcss2 anyhow. Opened Totem and sucessfully played the Santana DVD. Overall not too tough to get working.

Streaming Audio
Installing StreamTuner for my favorite streaming audio the Technicolor Web of Sound. Had to log out and back in for StreamTuner to appear in the menus. Ran the prog, found Technicolor Web of Sound and we are now listening using RhythmBox.

Mount Points for ext3, fat32 and ntfs
Gonna start by listing my partitions using /sbin/fdisk -l. Then I'll create the mount points under /media. Don't think I'll mount all the ext3 linux partitions. I don't need them mounted. I created directories /media/winxp1, winxp2, vista, fc6, music, userspace,and morespace for now. As I look at the output of cat /proc/filesystems I see that I don't have support for NTFS yet. I'll do that tomorrow. It's getting late and I'm tired. OK, I have the two vfat parts mounted under winxp1 and 2, the two ext3 partitions mounted under userspace and fc6. Just need to do the NTFS thing.

That's it to this point. More Debian Etch configuration tomorrow or the next day.

New Car! - Well, sorta new

I guess that when you're in sales it pays to make a call back More...to a prospect once in a while. Today I took delivery of the 2002 Caravan that we drove last week. It's pretty much the same as the '97 Voyager, the 'grocery getter'. Guess it'll be dubbed 'grocery getter II'. The whole deal took a long time, looking for a car, even though we only went out test driving and looking two or three times. Once we settled on 'grocery getter II' it was a matter of financing. That wasn't a problem except for the fact that the credit union we deal with is on the other side of the state and all the paperwork was through fax and mail. But that big fat check showed up today, UPS next day. These car dealers do pretty much all the footwork for you. All I had to do was to go to the dealership this morning, sign some papers, and give them the check. They got the plates, put an inspection sticker on it, (like it wasn't going to pass inspection), and did everything else that they do to prepare the car for delivery. They called me mid afternoon to let me know that it was ready and even picked me up at the house! Nice! Good thing I had to go back because I forgot to sign 'big fat check'. Heh! I signed, went home and parked 'gg' in the driveway. Wonder when the first payment is due?

Beryl for Gnome Again

This time I installed Beryl for Gnome on my daughters' computer. Her pc has an ATI card, the Radeon 9200 AGP / 128MB, where mine has an NVidia card, the GeForce FX 5200 AGP / 128MB. I'm really impressed with how easy it was to install Beryl and get things up and running. I'm using the Livna repositories on this install, and Livna has the packages necessary. I installed kmod-fglrx and rebooted the machine so that I would be using the ATI graphics driver. Once I got back to the desktop I installed beryl and beryl-manager. When the install finished I ran beryl-manager, chose a theme and played with the special effects to see that they all worked. Done. Simple, clean and easy. Here's what I did, as root:

First the ATI drivers:
'yum install kmod-fglrx'
Then a reboot
'reboot'
The the beryl stuff:
'yum install beryl beryl-manager'
That's all!

Bonfire!

We went to the annual Salem bonfire last night. It was held at Dead Horse Beach in the Salem Willows Park. The event has grown over the last several years. I'd bet that there were a few thousand people there, which is exponentially more than I've seen in past years. The town clears and levels a part of the beach and piles the collected Christmas trees in the center. This years' pile had to have had a 50 foot diameter and was about 30 feet tall. Different estimates put the number of trees at anywhere from 500 to 2000! Biggest pile of Christmas trees I've ever seen! The trees were lit off at 6:00 last night. The photo shows the fire about 1 minute after lighting. We hung around for about an hour, at which time it was still burning furiously, and I had had enough of staring mindlessly at fire. Fascination with fire has got to be a primitive ingrained thing with humans. Why else would one stand for an hour staring at it? It was a nice little community 'event'. Something to bring people together for a short while. You bring the kids and the dog and it's free. No politics either!

Beryl for Gnome - Wow!

Just a short note regarding my Fedora Core 6 adventure. I just installed Beryl for Gnome. Wow! I thought that the Compiz desktop effects were cool. That was nothing! And installation was easy, probably because I already had installed everything else I needed when I set up Compiz. All I needed to do was yum install beryl and run it. The effects are awesome, and there's more of them with much more flexibility. Additionally, the computer seems more responsive and snappier, as if I had just added more ram or a faster cpu. If you run Gnome or KDE give it a shot. If you run into problems there is no shortage of help in the forums.

The Hunt, or "I Need a Job Foo!"

Well, I found a job posting on craigslist yesterday. A local company looking for an entry level Linux administrator. This is a job that I'd be interested in, but I have no credentials. The posting listed requirements for the position and I met none of them. Of course, with my automotive background I didn't do any computer systems administration, did I? So I e-mailed the guy and was honest and straight forward with him. Told him that I was very interested in working with Linux but I do not meet the criteria. He replied that I should send my resume along anyhow because he may have something for me. I'm cautiously optimistic. This all may mean nothing given my lack of experience. On the other hand, maybe I could get my foot in the door and learn from the ground up. We'll wait and see. Meanwhile I keep sending out resumes for jobs that I may not be qualified for. No harm trying.

The search begins

Ok, play time is over. Christmas and New Years' day have past. It's Jan 2, 2007. In 10 days I'll be 50. Time to try to end my unexpected vacation. Since Dec 20, when I was laid off, I haven't done anything about finding a job. It's not that I'm lazy. I just figured that I'd wait 'till after the holidays. Well, here I am. So what did I do today about feeding the family you ask? I polished up my resume’, searched several on-line help wanted thingys, made a few calls and sent a few e-mails. Even got a reply from one e-mail. So did I really look for a job or did I just screw around on the 'net? You tell me. At any rate, this is the easy part, using the computer and internet to find a job. It's nameless and faceless. I could be applying for these jobs in my underwear, unshowered and stubble faced. But I need to go out and 'pound the pavement'. I need to decide what I'd like to do and stop in and actually ask someone face to face if they're hiring. Apparenty. if you e-mail your resume' and they're not interested, they do nothing, don't even tell you that they don't need your services. You are sort of just left hanging, wondering if they even looked at your stuff. I guess that if you've heard nothing in a week's time you may as well forget that one. Pretend that you never applied. Actually going into a business in person, that's different. You need to shave and shower, put on clean clothes, nice clothes at that (gotta make a good impression, right?) and 'put your best foot forward'. Wonder what day I'm going to do that. The clothes part? I'm a jeans and t-shirt kinda guy. Anything more and I'm 'dressed up'. Doesn't feel right. I don't even act the same if I'm not in my jeans and tee's. I'll have to be humble. I'll be a beggar. I need work, but do I really want to work here? What are they paying? What are the hours? Saturdays? Overtime? Vacation? Holidays? Health plan? Smoking or non smoking? Can I bring my dog? Has this building been tested? Free parking? WTF? Should I take the job or try for something better? What if I turn THEM down and don't find anything else for a week or two? Guess I'll just keep e-mailing those resumes'.

Kiss My Bass!

Fedora Core 6 My Way - Minor Details

Double clicking on a title bar in Fedora's Gnome desktop and probably most other Gnome desktops causes the window to go full screen. Not my preference. To change that behavior, click on system, preferences, windows. In the middle of the configuration window, to the right of where it says 'double click title bar to perform this action' change the drop down from 'minimize' to 'shade'. Now, when you double click in the title bar, the window will sort of roll up like a window shade instead of maximize.