Finally giving something back…
Thanks to a co-worker, I am now a KDE user. I run Kubuntu 8.04 as my primary operating system. Kubuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu Linux which uses KDE as it's desktop environment. Having been a long time Gnome user, it was with great trepidation that I even begin using KDE as my primary desktop. (If I've already lost you, it's ok. *You* have not yet fallen prey to the seductive wiles of a free OS or you run proprietary hardware that prevents you from doing so.)
Ever since I started using KDE 3.5.9 and actually spending the time to configure it to my tastes, I was hooked. Advanced Window settings allowed me to pin an application to any one of my four active workspaces. My keyboard shortcuts were considered global so that meant that an application couldn't override the keyboard shortcuts *I* wanted to use. KDE was the word and the way.
Backtrack to 7/3/2008: A few Midori sours and I logged into #kubuntu-devel, the Kubuntu Developers channel on IRC. I asked if there was some way that a longtime Linux user with moderate Python abilities could help out with Kubuntu's future. Jonathan Riddell, founder of Kubuntu, responded with a yes: Help us port Ubuntu language-selector to PyKDE4. I agreed and I am happy to contribute to Kubuntu in whatever way I can.
As wonderful as the experience of modifying and committing code has been, the KDE4 experience hasn't been all that glorious. Here are some of the low points:
- Clicking on an application in the taskbar causes that application to minimize if I'm already on that desktop. In other words, if I attempt to use the taskbar to switch applications that are on the same desktop by clicking it's icon in the taskbar, the application I want to use gets minimized.
- Turning on Desktop Effects (aka Compiz for Gnome users), causes my computer to run like it's powered by hamster wheels.
- Most of the icons in my menus and for the plasmoids (widgets, gadgets, et al) are the standard box with a -?-
- The taskbar at the bottom will sometimes show corrupted graphics
- Kopete can't connect to Google Talk securely without crashing
Good points:
- KDE 4.1 is really pretty.
- KDE 4.1 implements a "dashboard" layer where the plasmoids are separate from the desktop.
- Konqueror is MUCH improved - faster, cleaner looking
- Dolphin has column view. Ah, how I missed that.
Still, I'm glad to be helping what I believe to be the best operating system. I hope to continue contributing to Kubuntu for some time to come.
In the meantime, I'll be using KDE 4.1 extensively and exclusively. When I remember, I'll post my experiences working with it here. Currently, I'm giving KMail a once-over. I'm a long-time Thunderbird user and I'm not pleased by the preliminary looks of the KDE 4.1 equivalent. It's been one night, though, so we'll give it some time and see what happens.
What Patriotism Is, and Is Not
To find the U.S. patriotism in foreign soil, Iraq brought to you by Barack Obama of the 21st century.
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Is it just me or is this…odd?
Today, an employee of my friendly neighborhood Target pharmacy calls me to ask how I'm doing with my antibiotics. I responded with, "Just fine. I'm taking them on time, as prescribed. Thank you" because what the hell do you say to a question like that?
Perhaps I find it strange that my local corporate dispenser of pharmaceutical products is interrupting me to ask such an asinine and, in retrospect, rather vague question. Have they received customer complaints about the quality of their medications? Did you switch my beloved Levaquin with dehydrated horse urine and just wanted to see if I had caught on to your ruse?
Maybe something like this would have been better:
"Just fine. I enjoyed the taste of the Flagyl so much I ate them all yesterday. In fact, if you're ever lucky enough to enjoy its distinctive acidic taste, I'd suggest something other than tequila to wash it down. I tried that and spent an hour in the bathroom regurgitating pizza from last night."
Oddness.
one of those days
it's just one of those days where you wake up and the world just seems out of focus. Something's not quite right with me but I'd be hard-pressed to tell you why. Maybe after some caffeine, things will seem all right.
Some light reading.
Many moons ago, when the Internet was new and filled with joy, before the overwhelming red tide of e-commerce and online advertising reduced it to a cheap, tattooed whore, I found an HTML editor that I liked a lot, "Arachnophilia (HTML editor)":http://vps.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.html. The license for the software was unique, "CareWare (Just Care)":http://vps.arachnoid.com/careware/index.html. The author asked only that you care for an hour, a day, a week.
To quote:
bq. So here is my deal: stop whining for an hour, a day, a week, your choice
<aside>
I'm sure that seems like way too much to ask. Hell, I'm not even sure I can stop for that long.
</aside>
I found this intriguing enough to browse the rest of the site and come across a couple of real gems that I think everyone should read. The first is "How we confuse symbols and things":http://vps.arachnoid.com/lutusp/symbols.html. This article explains how many of us lack the ability to distinguish between a symbol and the thing for which that symbol stands. The second, "Consumer Angst (a personal fave)":http://vps.arachnoid.com/lutusp/consumerangst.html, explains much better than I can ever hope to, the evils of advertising.
Just came acoss these bookmarks again and decided to share.
One more from the shoot.
Here's one more from that photo shoot with my friend/boss.
In his words, "Bean kinda looks like a rock star for some cool industrial band." ha ha ha
Some abstract wallpapers
Many eons ago, I was introduced to a wonderful piece of landscape software, Bryce 3. I used it to create fantasy landscapes with rivers that flowed down mountains (even though they had no source) and strange objects with stranger textures.
That was until I ran across a tutorial online on making abstract art with Bryce. Since that time, I've rarely used it for its original purpose: creating artificial landscapes.
So, recently I purchased Bryce from "Daz3D":http://www.daz3d.com and began making more abstract wallpapers for my MacBook.
Here's just a few of my recent ones:
and my current backdrop:
Enjoy 'em! If you like them, let me know. If you don't like them, let me know.
Snapshots from our day in SF
Here's just a few snapshots from our walk-about tour of SF. Mind you, at this point, we'd left our camera in the hotel, so two of these are from Photo Booth on my MacBook and the others are from "Jen's (She's a cutie!)":http://www.princessjeni.org cellphone camera.
Heading in to the city
Monday is the "princess's (I do so love her.)":http://princessjeni.org birthday. So, we decided to get away for the weekend and head in to the city. We have reservations at a hotel in Union Square and possibly tickets to "Beach Blanket Babylon (long-running SF stage play)":http://beachblanketbabylon.com.
Right now, however, we're heading to Fisherman's Wharf since check-in at the hotel isn't until three o'clock. And at some point, our friend Ashley should be joining us. It's going to be an exciting day.
I hope to have pictures and more posts later.
For the record, this was posted from the car. SF is full of open wi-fi access. 
How Mainstream Is Your Music?
For all of us "last.fm (social networking for musos)":http://last.fm/user/papabean geeks:
The Mainstream-O-Meter calculates your mainstreamness by comparing the listener count of your favorite bands to the average listener count of the five bands who have the most listeners among Last.fm-users.
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