Nerdery at Home
Posted by Patrick on Wednesday, July 04, 2007Kate jetted up the coast today, leaving me and the furry ones down here for a few days before I fly up on Friday night. Me starting a new job means slightly compacted travel plans.
Tonight consisted of four activities, two moderately nerdy in nature.
Watering the lawn:
Both a pain and a chore. I like our house, and I like our yard, but watering the lawn is a drag. It's not some crazy effort, but it takes time moving the houses around the house and I always seem to get wet.... and yet if we don't water the lawn (and, more importantly, the trees), our little slice of suburbia turns brown. I anxiously await for the day when robots will perform yard related tasks for us.
Talking to Kate on the Phone:
I was happy to hear that she safely arrived in New England, without any travel shenanigans. She no doubt has some action-packed days ahead of her this week.
Watched Battlestar Galactica:
This show is sci-fi-rific. I've watched three episodes of season 2 tonight, and it's good television. Sometimes I wish we had cable, so I could catch fresh episodes as they come out, but I kind of like watching a bunch at once, commercial free.
(By the way, for fans of the show: I suspect that Lewis Scooter Libby is actually a Cylon. You heard it here first.)
Installed Xubuntu Linux on the old Power Mac G4:
By far the nerdiest thing I've done all day. I thought the machine was toast, but it turns out it was just a bad hard drive. I found an old, unused hard drive and (instead of reinstalling the Mac OS) installed a variation of the Linux operating system on it called Xubuntu.
Xubuntu is a version of Linux written for slightly older machines, and so far it has been a great OS to use. I'm typing this blog post on it right now.
Installation was, for the most part, pretty darn easy. It's never flawless, but it also didn't take four hours, and only required two reboots (unlike a certain other company's OS intall.)
As an added bonus, it's all free Open Source software, so you can be moderately sure that no one in Redmond, WA is data-mining your shopping habbits, or trying hard to get you to upgrade to a "premium" version.
I can say that if you're doing graphic design in the real world, play super-fancy computer games, or if everyone else in the office uses Windows, Linux might not be a good choice for you. But for a spare computer here at Rockland-Ave, with zero dollars in software cost, it's pretty sweet.
And now it's time for bed. Happy Independence Day!
Labels: Homeownership, Nerdery
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