Yesterday, while I was chatting with a Chinese friend, she told me something interesting.
Apparently, her laptop had been damaged, so I asked her about the state of her computer.
She said "It's hopeless. Windows suggested me to turn off the system, but it refused to do it, so I forced the turn off. Since then, Windows has not been able to boot and rescue system does not work, either."
Then, I suggested her to go dual booting Linux-Windows once she got her Windows serviced. She said "Yes, I think you're right. I should do that."
Then, she told me she was using a Mac her boss had lent her.
This is the interesting part...according to my friend, her boss bought me Mac, wiped out the system...and installed Windows XP on it!
I couldn't believe what she had just told me. What on earth would someone do that for??
I asked my friend: "And does it work well? I mean, XP is quite resource-hungry..."
She replied "Of course not! I've noticed several problems already! This is such a waste!"
Really, besides the waste, I think there's something deeper here. It's quite a nice example of mind domestication...Although the human brain is highly adaptable and capable of learning, how come people sometimes prefer to keep clinging to old paradigms, and even impose them when they do not apply? Using XP (or Windows) is fine if you like it, but you should also be willing to learn new tricks sometimes...who knows if they are going to save you someday...
lunes, 29 de agosto de 2011
sábado, 20 de agosto de 2011
Crossword Puzzle of Some Linux Distros...
Since all work and no play makes Megatotoro a dull boy, I squeezed out some time to make this little crossword puzzle. It shouldn't be that hard to finish it, I think. HAVE FUN!!!
jueves, 4 de agosto de 2011
Seven Signs that You Have Been Brainwashed by Microsoft
Considering the last events I've been able to observe, as well as Mechatotoro's contributions, I compiled this short list of manifestations of a Microsoft-only mentality, just for fun.
1. You think free/libre software is unreliable and dangerous, but then you download cracked versions of programs and feel proud about it.
2. If your Windows system breaks down, you are able to do all your computing off a Linux live CD, but then you look for a (pirated?) Windows copy and install it.
3. When your Windows system does not act as expected, you blame the computer. However, if Linux doesn't fulfill your expectations, you say "This OS is junk!"
4. When you hear about Linux or Apple, you think "communists" and "nazis," but you don't complain about using software that limits the functionality of your PC on purpose or treats you as a pirate by default unless you prove it otherwise.
5. You say you don't want to try Linux because you don't want to learn new things. However, you learned to use the latest Windows version and the new MS Office with no complaints.
6. You write "advanced Word-using skills" on your resume, but when someone asks you to send a document using "compatibility mode" you say you don't know how to do that.
7. You hear tech-savvy people recommend browsers like Opera, Firefox, and Chrome. But still, you use an outdated IE version even though you have the latest version of the other browsers installed.
So far, these are the ones I've seen or been told about by people around me. Do you know about any others? :P
1. You think free/libre software is unreliable and dangerous, but then you download cracked versions of programs and feel proud about it.
2. If your Windows system breaks down, you are able to do all your computing off a Linux live CD, but then you look for a (pirated?) Windows copy and install it.
3. When your Windows system does not act as expected, you blame the computer. However, if Linux doesn't fulfill your expectations, you say "This OS is junk!"
4. When you hear about Linux or Apple, you think "communists" and "nazis," but you don't complain about using software that limits the functionality of your PC on purpose or treats you as a pirate by default unless you prove it otherwise.
5. You say you don't want to try Linux because you don't want to learn new things. However, you learned to use the latest Windows version and the new MS Office with no complaints.
6. You write "advanced Word-using skills" on your resume, but when someone asks you to send a document using "compatibility mode" you say you don't know how to do that.
7. You hear tech-savvy people recommend browsers like Opera, Firefox, and Chrome. But still, you use an outdated IE version even though you have the latest version of the other browsers installed.
So far, these are the ones I've seen or been told about by people around me. Do you know about any others? :P
martes, 26 de julio de 2011
Doing Your Work...on a Broken PC!!
Lately, I have been too busy with work and life, so I haven't been able to explore or experiment my Linux systems. On top of that, they keep working as expected, so I haven't posted much these days, either.
An interesting experience for keeping here, though, is the one a respected colleague is currently going through.
About a month ago, he got hit by a nasty virus and his PC went dead as a brick. It would not start at all and the technician advised him to format and reinstall his Windows XP system.
This colleague also happened to have with him a Mepis Linux 8.0 Live CD. Using it, he has been able to go online and do all his work without a problem. Since he is not much into tech stuff, he runs everything off the live session, with no installation.
So it turns out that my colleague has been using what most people know as "a broken PC" and has been able to do his work. For the world, his PC is dead, but it still walks, moves, and does whatever it is told without hesitation.
It seems that the idea of "ZOMBIE" can be quite rewarding in the world of Linux.
An interesting experience for keeping here, though, is the one a respected colleague is currently going through.
About a month ago, he got hit by a nasty virus and his PC went dead as a brick. It would not start at all and the technician advised him to format and reinstall his Windows XP system.
This colleague also happened to have with him a Mepis Linux 8.0 Live CD. Using it, he has been able to go online and do all his work without a problem. Since he is not much into tech stuff, he runs everything off the live session, with no installation.
So it turns out that my colleague has been using what most people know as "a broken PC" and has been able to do his work. For the world, his PC is dead, but it still walks, moves, and does whatever it is told without hesitation.
It seems that the idea of "ZOMBIE" can be quite rewarding in the world of Linux.
domingo, 17 de julio de 2011
Learning to Slack with Kongoni!
Some days ago, I had said that I was bored since my multi-boot systems were working perfectly. I also said that I wanted to try Kongoni GNU/Linux.
Since booting the live CD wasn't enough, my quest for knowledge led me to actually installing this Slackware-based distro. Three were my main motivations to add yet another head to my hepta-boot desktop computer:
1. I have not tried a purely Libre distro.
2. I've always wanted to try Slackware, but I feel I'm not yet up to it.
3. I felt it was about time for me to see if I could do well with a text-based installation.
Thus, last night I took up the challenge, encouraged by a rainy night during which sleep had eluded me.
Kongoni's text installation did not bite me. Actually, I could understand quite well most of the questions (I'm not going to get into details here, but they asked about partitions, locales, the clock and such). My only problem was when I reached the part in which the installation asked me about the mounting points for my multiple partitions. Being careless as I am, I had forgotten to take note of that beforehand, so I said "What the heck! Let's live life dangerously!" and chose "ignore" for all the mounting points. After all, being Slackware an OS that encourages people to build their own systems, it must have some way to mount those things later, whatever they were! :P
After some time of file-copying, Kongoni's installer gave me good news: My system had been installed successfully! (I couldn't help feeling proud of myself because that meant that I could actually install a GNU/Linux distro without the help of any GUI).
Next was rebooting to meet my brand new Kongoni OS! Yay!
Kongoni's Grub greeted me with many (and I mean it) entries to boot. It seemed that all my previous Grub entries (functional or not) came to a dance and waited for me to pick them. Incredibly enough, my tortured brain was able to remember vaguely which OS was on which partition...and there were many in that Grub that simply didn't correspond to my OSs.
I let them alone and picked Kongoni, of course. I braced myself for chaos and despair, but in a matter of seconds I was happily navigating Kongoni's KDE desktop.
Again, although there were some desktop effects, I couldn't get the cube to work. Oh well, being a humble Mepis 8 user with no Compiz, I can live without it, hehehe!
The second test: music and video. They had not worked during my live session. Did they work now?
No. Amarok and Dragon Player worked, but very silently. That's bad if you actually want them to give you some sound, right? Moreover, Dragon Player crashed again...
While I'm aware that such problem can be corrected somehow, I'm just beginning my Kongoni-Slacking experience, so I opted for an easier approach. How about installing VLC?
How does Kongoni manage the packages? Oh, I had to meet PIG and got familiar with the concept of "ports".
Apparently, PIG took something and compiled it along with its libraries and dependencies. I didn't understand much what was happening, but hope to learn more in time. It showed me the whole process...I wish I knew what all that meant! Whatever PIG did, it did it well because after waiting for some time, I could find VLC in the application launcher:
So, did I get sound this time? Yes! Perfect! I tried different kinds of videos and audio files from my different partitions (no problem accessing them, by the way) and VLC played all.
The downsides of this experience? First, when trying the Grub options, I made a mistake with Mandriva (which had previously stood several of my destructive attacks and was a bit unstable) and rendered it unusable. Even though it tried to repair itself later, it didn't work out this time.
Also, since I didn't like that Grub, I used Mepis System Assistant to repair it and later I manually edited the file "menu.lst" to enable Pardus, that was absent.
Now I have to reinstall my Mandriva system...but I guess I'll wait for the brand new Mandriva to arrive. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to learn more about Kongoni and will start my slacking!
Since booting the live CD wasn't enough, my quest for knowledge led me to actually installing this Slackware-based distro. Three were my main motivations to add yet another head to my hepta-boot desktop computer:
1. I have not tried a purely Libre distro.
2. I've always wanted to try Slackware, but I feel I'm not yet up to it.
3. I felt it was about time for me to see if I could do well with a text-based installation.
Thus, last night I took up the challenge, encouraged by a rainy night during which sleep had eluded me.
Kongoni's text installation did not bite me. Actually, I could understand quite well most of the questions (I'm not going to get into details here, but they asked about partitions, locales, the clock and such). My only problem was when I reached the part in which the installation asked me about the mounting points for my multiple partitions. Being careless as I am, I had forgotten to take note of that beforehand, so I said "What the heck! Let's live life dangerously!" and chose "ignore" for all the mounting points. After all, being Slackware an OS that encourages people to build their own systems, it must have some way to mount those things later, whatever they were! :P
After some time of file-copying, Kongoni's installer gave me good news: My system had been installed successfully! (I couldn't help feeling proud of myself because that meant that I could actually install a GNU/Linux distro without the help of any GUI).
Next was rebooting to meet my brand new Kongoni OS! Yay!
Kongoni's Grub greeted me with many (and I mean it) entries to boot. It seemed that all my previous Grub entries (functional or not) came to a dance and waited for me to pick them. Incredibly enough, my tortured brain was able to remember vaguely which OS was on which partition...and there were many in that Grub that simply didn't correspond to my OSs.
I let them alone and picked Kongoni, of course. I braced myself for chaos and despair, but in a matter of seconds I was happily navigating Kongoni's KDE desktop.
Again, although there were some desktop effects, I couldn't get the cube to work. Oh well, being a humble Mepis 8 user with no Compiz, I can live without it, hehehe!
The second test: music and video. They had not worked during my live session. Did they work now?
No. Amarok and Dragon Player worked, but very silently. That's bad if you actually want them to give you some sound, right? Moreover, Dragon Player crashed again...
While I'm aware that such problem can be corrected somehow, I'm just beginning my Kongoni-Slacking experience, so I opted for an easier approach. How about installing VLC?
How does Kongoni manage the packages? Oh, I had to meet PIG and got familiar with the concept of "ports".
Apparently, PIG took something and compiled it along with its libraries and dependencies. I didn't understand much what was happening, but hope to learn more in time. It showed me the whole process...I wish I knew what all that meant! Whatever PIG did, it did it well because after waiting for some time, I could find VLC in the application launcher:
So, did I get sound this time? Yes! Perfect! I tried different kinds of videos and audio files from my different partitions (no problem accessing them, by the way) and VLC played all.
The downsides of this experience? First, when trying the Grub options, I made a mistake with Mandriva (which had previously stood several of my destructive attacks and was a bit unstable) and rendered it unusable. Even though it tried to repair itself later, it didn't work out this time.
Also, since I didn't like that Grub, I used Mepis System Assistant to repair it and later I manually edited the file "menu.lst" to enable Pardus, that was absent.
Now I have to reinstall my Mandriva system...but I guess I'll wait for the brand new Mandriva to arrive. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to learn more about Kongoni and will start my slacking!
sábado, 16 de julio de 2011
A Weekend with Kongoni 2011
I'm thinking seriously about installing Kongoni 2011. I had tried its release candidate a few months ago and was very pleased with it.
Thus, as soon as I learned that the final version was out, I downloaded it and burned my Kongoni 2011 Live CD. Yes, I am of those who still burn CDs, hehe!
My experience with this new CD was a bit worrisome at the beginning. I inserted it and let its automatic boot go...but got the unpleasant error message that the live CD was not found. Since I had nothing else to do, I rebooted the computer and pressed "enter" before the 10 seconds for the automatic boot were over.
This time I did get the Grub menu. I chose the default option and quickly enough I saw Kongoni's default desktop! Maybe the previous problem was due to a bad burn...I'll check later.
My experience with Kongoni was somehow the same than the previous time with the release candidate. However, I did notice something different: this time neither Amarok nor Dragon Player gave me any sound. In fact, Dragon Player crashed several times. Contrastingly, system sounds were OK and Youtube videos played perfectly. Again, was it a bad burn?
I'll see after I check and install. That will be my next project for this weekend.
Thus, as soon as I learned that the final version was out, I downloaded it and burned my Kongoni 2011 Live CD. Yes, I am of those who still burn CDs, hehe!
My experience with this new CD was a bit worrisome at the beginning. I inserted it and let its automatic boot go...but got the unpleasant error message that the live CD was not found. Since I had nothing else to do, I rebooted the computer and pressed "enter" before the 10 seconds for the automatic boot were over.
This time I did get the Grub menu. I chose the default option and quickly enough I saw Kongoni's default desktop! Maybe the previous problem was due to a bad burn...I'll check later.
My experience with Kongoni was somehow the same than the previous time with the release candidate. However, I did notice something different: this time neither Amarok nor Dragon Player gave me any sound. In fact, Dragon Player crashed several times. Contrastingly, system sounds were OK and Youtube videos played perfectly. Again, was it a bad burn?
I'll see after I check and install. That will be my next project for this weekend.
domingo, 10 de julio de 2011
Everything's Fine...Shall I Try an Update?
While several of my colleagues and students are having a great time fighting viruses and malware or trying to get their mainstream, highly-reputed systems to work again, both my mutant penta-boot netbook and my grotesque hepta-boot desktop have been working fine. Thus, more out of boredom than for any other reason, I decided to check for and install their corresponding updates. Since it had been a few months since my last update, I thought things could get complicated and thus I could join my colleagues' frustration...let's see:
A- My penta-boot netbook:
1. Mepis 8.0 (main OS): it is up to date.
2. Mepis 11: 17 packages needed to be updated...nothing bad happened after the update.
3. Mandriva One 2010 Spring: 5 packages needed to be updated...no issues after installing them.
4. Pardus 2010: Up to date.
5. Windows XP: I don't boot it anymore, so no need to update it.
B- My hepta-boot desktop:
1. Mepis 8.0 (main OS): it is up to date.
2. Mepis 11: 17 packages needed to be updated...everything went smoothly with the updates.
3. Mandriva One 2010 Spring: 5 packages needed to be updated...no problems after the installation.
4. Pardus 2010: Up to date.
5. AntiX m11: Up to date.
6. MiniNo: Up to date.
7. Windows XP: Same as with my netbook.
OK, no luck! My multi-headed computers are updated and running normally...hehe! That didn't help me with my boredom but it's much better to be bored this way!
A- My penta-boot netbook:
1. Mepis 8.0 (main OS): it is up to date.
2. Mepis 11: 17 packages needed to be updated...nothing bad happened after the update.
3. Mandriva One 2010 Spring: 5 packages needed to be updated...no issues after installing them.
4. Pardus 2010: Up to date.
5. Windows XP: I don't boot it anymore, so no need to update it.
B- My hepta-boot desktop:
1. Mepis 8.0 (main OS): it is up to date.
2. Mepis 11: 17 packages needed to be updated...everything went smoothly with the updates.
3. Mandriva One 2010 Spring: 5 packages needed to be updated...no problems after the installation.
4. Pardus 2010: Up to date.
5. AntiX m11: Up to date.
6. MiniNo: Up to date.
7. Windows XP: Same as with my netbook.
OK, no luck! My multi-headed computers are updated and running normally...hehe! That didn't help me with my boredom but it's much better to be bored this way!
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