yum successfully installed the following, which I was not able to install from scratch:
mplayer
gaim
ntfs
The process is so simple that it is shocking, compared to the growing dependency requests which last forever in the configure-make-makeinstall or rpm way.
Another sign that things have improved over the years.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Fedora Core 4 on T41
Installing Linux on PC is no longer a daunting task, because after I had it working on my 1 year old T41, I do not really feel like wrting up some detailed installation notes. Fedora Core 4 pretty much works out of the box as installed from the 4 CD-ROMs or the 1 piece DVD. Ironically, the downloading took me longer.
Only a few tihinhs worth mentioning:
1. Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 Driver for Linux
Only a few tihinhs worth mentioning:
1. Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 Driver for Linux
A year ago I was using LinuxAnt, a wrapper on top of the correspongin Window XP driver for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 card. The installation was easy and the wrapper/driver is easy to use (through redhat-config-network) and stable. But the LinuxAnt wrapper is not free. After 30 days you need to buy a license although it is not expensive at all. I was screwed by someone and left the country. For the summer of 2004 I was pretty much on dial-up on the edge of my bed (see old posts dated last summer) and WLAN was not necessary so I did not bother to pay for the driver.2. Screen resolution.
After this much time, things have improved. There is a completely open source solution: Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 Driver for Linux, following the installation guide included in the download, it was relatively easy. The prosess did not exactly match the descriptions, but again I managed to get it working with the system-config-network utility, even encryption works fine and the wireless link is automatically established on every reboot despite an irritating error message on system startup (something about frequency, it does not matter).
Somehow the same screen does not as good in Linux as in OS X and Windows, it is always a bit blurry. Besides I was always a little worried while selection the display hardware type during installation. This time I was a bit brave and choose 1400x1050 on the IBM LCD (still selection generic LCD in installation) and it actually looks pretty good on KDE. One funny thing: GNOME desktop looks misplaced after I bumped up the resolution, changing configurations did not seem to help. One day I was bored and used my mouse to drag the task bars around the desktop ... ... After a few spins the problem is gone! The twisted screen corrects itself and everything comes back to normal! Now I have 1400x1050 on GNOME as well as in KDE. No extra configuration is needed.
Our Neighbour Has A New Baby!
Born Thursday, 18th. So small and cute :)
Now there are two babies in the neighbour yard.
Now there are two babies in the neighbour yard.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Living with the MINI Cooper S Automatic
Living with the MINI Cooper S Automatic
Somebody did this write-up and saved me tons of typing. I have not finished reading the entire thing yet. But judging from his colour choice I must agree with him :DDD Anyway, I would prefer more time behind the wheel than the keyboard!
Saturday, August 06, 2005
野百合也有春天……啊
……84号公路西向里废弃的农舍，在丛生的野草里边爬出那些花来，沿着木板墙往上生长，算不上协调，但是有生命力，总是好的。
回来的路上，就只想着肚皮，要吃烤肉了。
2005年8月6日。来自美国东西海岸几所大学的交大校友以及台湾同胞，海外侨胞们在半月湾。
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Little Kelvin Is Sick Today
When I came back from dinner, little Kelvin is gone! My neighbour took their 18-month Kelvin to the hospital after realizing that he is having a light fever in the late afternoon... It might have been the water spray in the morning, or simply too much fun in the yard throught the day.
Hope little Kelvin is fine :)
Hope little Kelvin is fine :)
A Fun Run
It has been quite a while...since my lasgt post... All right, even the profile pages seems to have changes and all my "recent" posts are gone. A lot of things have happened and it could be the reasone of no posting (another reasone would be nothing really happened, which is not the case this time).My wife can finally took over the Mini when she can drive herself to school every day. So I have the little machine for the weekend. One thing to do is to mount a video camera on it and take it to the moutains through 84 and 35 ... Unfortunately I cannot upload the videoS here ...
For the record, practically I was not actually speeding. According to the speedo in the videos, I was going 50-ish, around the limit.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Matt13.com - OpenOffice.Org or Microsoft Office
Matt13.com - OpenOffice.Org or Microsoft Office
This seems interesting. I use OpenOffice because first of all it is legally free and secondly it is not from M$ and last but not least it can export to PDF file which I find very useful when I am printing across platforms (Linux, Mac, Windows, Solaris, HP ...).
Since I do not care about most of the features, stability and performance are the main concern. So far I am pretty happy with my OpenOffice. It could be interesting if I can have a chance to try Apple's Pages.
This seems interesting. I use OpenOffice because first of all it is legally free and secondly it is not from M$ and last but not least it can export to PDF file which I find very useful when I am printing across platforms (Linux, Mac, Windows, Solaris, HP ...).
Since I do not care about most of the features, stability and performance are the main concern. So far I am pretty happy with my OpenOffice. It could be interesting if I can have a chance to try Apple's Pages.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Our Janitor
Our janitor came to my cube later today, after almost everybody had left, and asked if I was getting ready to move.
Our janitor said he never saw it coming, that our company is merged by another one and now we are moving. He said he though we are gonna stay for a long long time. He said he had worked in the previous place for 25 years.
Our janitor has the coolest car in our parking lot, a 90's black Vette. Cold and dark under the tree. No one else even come close.
Our janitor even rememberd my name, even though I don't exactly remember his and was too embarrased to ask again.
Our janitor is the only black people here, in this all Chinese-Russian shop. But he's cool.
Our janitor said good-bye and we shook hands. He's gone just like our receptionist, HR (yyyyes!), finace and my ex-boss.
Our janitor said he never saw it coming, that our company is merged by another one and now we are moving. He said he though we are gonna stay for a long long time. He said he had worked in the previous place for 25 years.
Our janitor has the coolest car in our parking lot, a 90's black Vette. Cold and dark under the tree. No one else even come close.
Our janitor even rememberd my name, even though I don't exactly remember his and was too embarrased to ask again.
Our janitor is the only black people here, in this all Chinese-Russian shop. But he's cool.
Our janitor said good-bye and we shook hands. He's gone just like our receptionist, HR (yyyyes!), finace and my ex-boss.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Back to the Dark Ages
Got dragged to watch the Star Wars the other day, such a waste of time - I feel better washing dishes for 2 and half hours.
In a country where Yoga is cool and Buddhism is spiritual, you kind of figured what people would do for such a long series of movies (yes, I just said it, it is too long, too much). It is simply a one-page, 5-minute story streched into a decades-long third-rated plastic cartoon, where pigs fly, elephants work in the government (...) and top guns flight with AA battery powered light bulbs - they call it "light sabre", a kitchen knife would have been far more leathal for advanced space age when people dress like homeless in Chinese Tang Dynasty (only a little more than 1000 years ago, about 4 times the age of America). Don't they just love retro? This trend has been noticed ever since the Matrix. People in the future just so dig the style.
I guessed (using the word guess here is almost an insult to myself) then entire "story" within the first 2 minutes. The rest of the time is just for ticking the boxes and checking the time.
Suck you must, if you like to speak backwards like a mystic, 320-year old some "lord" without underware, read this:
siht daer `erawrednu tuohtiw "drol" emos dlo raey-023 `citsym a ekil sdrawkcab kaeps ot ekil uoy fi `tsum uoy kcus.
Forget about Si-Fi. All you can do is reality TV, eating worms, 3-some, breast surgery, pimping $50 cars, UFOs, police chasing pickups and rap. Or do you have films, where I couldn't help thinking about LAPD talking to an illegal immigrant from eastern-Europe while watching this Star Wars thing... I also remember seeing Chinese villagers speaking Japanese in American movies as well. And there was one film where a bounch of Chinese policemen in a car chase with an American businessman in a Chinese city - remember, Chinese cops do not drive at all. Marked police cars are driven by chauffeurs used to send in-laws home, not out-laws to the station.
In a country where Yoga is cool and Buddhism is spiritual, you kind of figured what people would do for such a long series of movies (yes, I just said it, it is too long, too much). It is simply a one-page, 5-minute story streched into a decades-long third-rated plastic cartoon, where pigs fly, elephants work in the government (...) and top guns flight with AA battery powered light bulbs - they call it "light sabre", a kitchen knife would have been far more leathal for advanced space age when people dress like homeless in Chinese Tang Dynasty (only a little more than 1000 years ago, about 4 times the age of America). Don't they just love retro? This trend has been noticed ever since the Matrix. People in the future just so dig the style.
I guessed (using the word guess here is almost an insult to myself) then entire "story" within the first 2 minutes. The rest of the time is just for ticking the boxes and checking the time.
Suck you must, if you like to speak backwards like a mystic, 320-year old some "lord" without underware, read this:
siht daer `erawrednu tuohtiw "drol" emos dlo raey-023 `citsym a ekil sdrawkcab kaeps ot ekil uoy fi `tsum uoy kcus.
Forget about Si-Fi. All you can do is reality TV, eating worms, 3-some, breast surgery, pimping $50 cars, UFOs, police chasing pickups and rap. Or do you have films, where I couldn't help thinking about LAPD talking to an illegal immigrant from eastern-Europe while watching this Star Wars thing... I also remember seeing Chinese villagers speaking Japanese in American movies as well. And there was one film where a bounch of Chinese policemen in a car chase with an American businessman in a Chinese city - remember, Chinese cops do not drive at all. Marked police cars are driven by chauffeurs used to send in-laws home, not out-laws to the station.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
First DELL Impression
Not that I wanted to buy one, I got one from work which was delivered today. It's a proper machine, solid, functional with all the usual stuff (4 USBs, wonder who would ever need that many in a laptop, but no 1394). Yet it looks 5 years old in its dreary gray plastic right from the box ... yes the IT guys have had them for a while to install the system, but for a one-day-old computer, the Latitude D610 looks pathetic, and feels that way too - it is so hot that it makes the one-year old T41 feels refreshing.
One advantage: it won't be stolen from the office, who would bother to do that? It is a smart choice in that way.
One advantage: it won't be stolen from the office, who would bother to do that? It is a smart choice in that way.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Final Gear Final?
This happened only 3 weeks after I found this nice site.
Even BBC did not say a word! The ISP just gave an ultimatum to Final Gear, demanding that all downloads to be taken away or they will take action.
It sucks. Think about this, even Top Gear (BBC) did not say a word, you really think they do not know this?
Lucky me. I have downloaded all available episodes till now. Time to burn a few DVDs.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Top Gear & Fifth Gear
Nice TV programming. Wonder Americans could ever produce anything close to that. I can now really hear some engine noise and human voice, not electrical "music" or redneck screaming. And finally, I can watch a car show without pickups... or at least, a show that test drives a pickup in the correct way :D
Monday, April 25, 2005
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Got MCS Today!
Well, actually, yesterday, March 22nd. We were too busy driving it around town as well as on a few streches of 280. It was raning heavily but the Mini just went like a magnet.
Yes.
Yes.
Thursday, March 17, 2005
MCS Arrived at Distribution Center...
Eventually!
IttookonlyaweektobuiltyettookalmostamonthtoarriveinAmerica!
WhoknowshowlongitwouldtaketogettoMtV!
IttookonlyaweektobuiltyettookalmostamonthtoarriveinAmerica!
WhoknowshowlongitwouldtaketogettoMtV!
Monday, March 07, 2005
Sunday, March 06, 2005
New Features In Picassa 2
This image is generated by Picassa from four pictures I picked from a library. the original photos are not square by Picassa managed to crop a square out of each photo and it looks not bad.
photo collage generated by Picassa
Another good feature is to generate a web page from selected foder. I write code every day but I really hate to write HTML or XML or any web-related code. The page is very simplistic but in a very pleasant way. A photo webpage should not contain anything more eye-catching than the photos themselves, which kind of follows the Google Way.
Picassa can also send selected pictures using Gmail or some other email services. One good thing: it automatically resizes the pictures. Although I am no longer surprised when I open an email sent to me by a friend which contains pictures, 9 out of 10 times the pictures are over 1000 pixes on each side which blows up the entire screen. Yes, some people really do not know that they can resize their pictures!
photo collage generated by Picassa
Another good feature is to generate a web page from selected foder. I write code every day but I really hate to write HTML or XML or any web-related code. The page is very simplistic but in a very pleasant way. A photo webpage should not contain anything more eye-catching than the photos themselves, which kind of follows the Google Way.
Picassa can also send selected pictures using Gmail or some other email services. One good thing: it automatically resizes the pictures. Although I am no longer surprised when I open an email sent to me by a friend which contains pictures, 9 out of 10 times the pictures are over 1000 pixes on each side which blows up the entire screen. Yes, some people really do not know that they can resize their pictures!
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