Karmic Koala released tomorrow

Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala, will be officially released tomorrow. I've been running the beta and RC versions of the OS for a couple of weeks. Earlier on, it had some video issues on the old Compaq computer that I'm using as my Linux box, but it has stabilized a lot over the last couple of days. Someday, I need to get a brand new system on which to install and enjoy Linux.

I've also been cleaning up a very old PIII system running Windows 2000 to use as a temporary backup if one of our primary systems dies. It had a bunch of stuff on it, like IIS, that only consumed memory and slowed down the box, so I uninstalled and/or changed services to manual launch.

My restructuring of the PHP code for my web site continues. I'm unpleasantly surprised by some of my old code--it makes me think, what was I doing!!! Fortunately, none of it is bad enough to deserve nomination to The Daily WTF, but the new structure, with DAO, etc., makes for much cleaner code and better division between the UI, the business logic, and the database, while making it easier to change to a different DBMS, etc.

We didn't make it to the Maze

Joy came down with a sore throat, etc., so we just relaxed at home on Saturday.

I upgraded the memory in Joy's computer (to 2gb) and installed Windows 7 Home Premium on three of our computers. The Win7 upgrade was fairly straight forward, but it took a long time, especially on my HP notebook. Joy's computer was running XP, so the Win7 upgrade for her computer required a new install, and then re-installing her applications.

So far, the new operating system seems to be very stable and somewhat snappier than Vista was.

Yesterday, we did some chores around the house, and I polished off The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown. It was a book that was hard to put down, but the ending was a little anti-climatic, after all of the action and suspense that lead up to it.

A Rainy Friday in October

It is supposed to rain for most of today, but tomorrow is supposed to be partly cloudy, so our trip to the zoo and the corn maze appear to still be viable.

I'm planning to upgrade some of the family computers to Windows 7 this weekend. We'll see how long that will take relative to the time it took to install Ubuntu 9.10. I expect that it will take significantly longer for Windows, but we'll see.

A Rainy Wednesday

It was pouring as I drove to work this morning. We're thinking of going to the zoo and The MAiZE on Sauvie Island on Saturday. Hopefully, the rain will end before then!

I've been installing some open source applications, like Gallery, WordPress, and Mantis on both my linux box and my hosted web site. I'm going to experiment with their features; I might switch to blogging using WordPress, if I find that it meets my needs.

A productive weekend

On Saturday, Joy and I went to a seminar at Rockwood SDA Church, Healing the Mind, presented by Dr. Timothy Jennings. He talked about how the mind and brain interact--the mind is the software and the brain is the hardware.

John had a sleepover birthday party on Saturday evening. Joy & I went to eat at Olive Garden--yummy Italian food.

Yesterday, I tried repairing a friend's computer. I think that it is having cooling issues. I cleaned out the dust and put new thermal compound between the CPU and the cooler, but it didn't help. I think that they are going to have to find a hardware geek to look at it.

I also setup Subversion on my linux box, to replace the CVS repository that I had running under Vista. It will be nice to have a central location for my source code, instead of manually synching it to several different devices.

I've been reading The Secret Sentry : the Untold History of the National Security Agency. It is interesting to read how the mistakes made in the 60s repeated themselves with the war against Iraq many years later.

October is almost half over...

Time continues to fly by. Tomorrow will be October 15.

Yesterday, I had to install the Microsoft patches on all of our family computers. We have 6 Windows computers between the three people in the house; I think we need a few more! :-)

I also updated my Linux box to use the new GRUB 2 boot loader, too. I'm still having occasional GUI lockups, but expect that they'll get those fixed before the official release date.

A Relaxing Weekend

--at least for me. Joy attended the Women of Faith conference, so she was gone most of the day Saturday. John & I just relaxed at home.

John tried to resurrect several old, dead computers by combining their parts, but was not successful. Now, he's interested in assembling his own desktop, using a barebone computer as a starting point.

I updated the operating system on my linux server to use Ubuntu 9.10 beta. There have been a few issues with the video driver for my Intel graphics device, but overall, I like 9.10 quite a bit. It is nice having the extra space the 80 gb drive gives me, too. I've installed a bunch of software that I would probably have just omitted with the much smaller 20 gb drive that was originally on the system.

Yesterday, we started a new eating plan. It should be interesting. Joy & I then went to the gym, where she beat me at racketball--yeah Joy!

The weather forecast is for rain to start this evening or tomorrow morning. Oh well, we had a good stretch of nice weather--and we don't want a drought, so I guess that I won't complain--too much... :-)

Playing with Ubuntu 9.10--Karmic Koala

I've upgrade an Ubuntu 9.04 virtual image to 9.10 (beta) to experiment with it some. I'll upgrade my linux box at home to 9.10 once it is officially released. I've been doing some work on my home system, too, changing from the original 20 gb drive to an 80 gb one, to have more space to install and develop. John can then use the 20gb drive in the system that he's trying to resurrect.

I could live quite happily using a linux box as my primary machine. Unfortunately, most of the world is still using Windows, so I need to have both available.

More nice October weather

Our spell of pretty, sunny days continues. The forecast is the same through the weekend; then, clouds and rain--in other words, our normal Autumn weather--are supposed to start up.

Joy is going to Women of Faith this weekend with Keri and Esther. She should have a good time. Maybe, I'll drag John to the zoo on Saturday afternoon to see the new Predators of Serengeti exhibit.

John has really gotten into his computer disassembly/reassembly. It's good to see him interested.

A fun weekend

Saturday morning, John and I had multimedia duty at PVC. After church, we relaxed at home. Saturday evening, we watched Twister.

We also watched Stand and Deliver; I'd not seen that movie before. The fact that it was based on a true story made it even more interesting--plus I was a math major in college.

Yesterday, I did my weekly check for anti-spyware, etc. on the family computers. In the afternoon, John and I went with to the Rose Garden with our friends Les, Keri, and Josh for the Wells Fargo Fan Fest. The weather was nice and there was a nice, friendly crowd cheering for the Blazers.

1st Friday in October

I'm glad that it's Friday, even if the weather forecast is for cloudy, cool, rainy weather.

John & I have multimedia duty at PVC tomorrow. Esther is on, so that means we'll get a good breakfast out of it, though.

Joy is feeling a little better. Hopefully by tomorrow, she'll be back to normal.

We're looking into getting a magicJack adapter, to get almost free land line (actually, VoIP) telephone service, to complement our cell phones.

John has today off of school. He's been trying to get an old, dead computer to come to life. We'll see how he does. I'm not sure if it is a dead power supply, or a dead motherboard.

October is here

It's October 1. Less than 3 months until Christmas. Time does fly by.

I worked on computers last evening. Keri's printer was having some issues. I used to really like HP's printers, but now, though their hardware is still good, it seems that their software has decreased in quality. This is the second friend this week having software issues with their HP all-in-one printers. Oh well, they both got solved, eventually.

Joy is home sick with the flu. Hopefully, she'll get over its soon--and not share it with the rest of the family!

Colder weather

This is the 1st time in months that I've worn a jacket to work in the morning. The forecast is for more of this cooler, wetter weather.

Today, after work, I'm going to work on a friend, Keri's computer. It has been running slower and slower, so I suspect some type of spyware. Les runs the antispyware suite every week, so this makes me concerned that something is slipping by Spybot, Ad-Aware, and Anti-Malware. We will see.

My digital photoframe is showing some of the pictures from Disneyland, Sea World, etc., this summer. I'm already ready for another vacation! :-)

A Great September Weekend

On Saturday, Joy & I drove up the Columbia River Gorge. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We stopped at several spots off of the normal tourist route. We stopped at a waterfall hidden in a little canyon. We hiked a few minutes through the woods to a very scenic overlook near Crown Point, with a sheer drop off of hundreds of feet only a couple of feet from our feet.

Yesterday, we spent most of the day doing work around the house. I did quite a bit of cleanup and organizing of our office, while Joy worked on our bedroom. Last evening, we took James to Applebee's to celebrate his 21st birthday.

The weather forecast is a decided change from the sparkly sunshine of the last couple of weeks. Rain and clouds are coming in. Oh well, we had a nice summer, and I know that we'll make it through the autumn and winter.

Funny movie!

Last evening, we went with several friends to see The Proposal, with Sandra Bullock. It was a very funny movie; all of us were laughing so much that we missed some of the dialog. It is one of the few that I've seen this year that I'd like to buy sometime.

The week is half gone, now, and the weekend is that much closer.

Tomorrow evening, I'm going to PVC to do some multimedia chores--replacing projector lamp, etc.

Yesterday, Portland broke an all time (or at least back to the 1880s...) record for the most days with 90 degrees or above temperatures. Today is supposed to be warm again, then back to more seasonable weather starting tomorrow.

Painting is finished

On Saturday, the Oregon Ducks won and the Oregon State Beavers lost, a good day for a Ducks fan; but of course my friends who are Beaver fans would disagree with me.

Yesterday, Joy finished painting our bedroom and bathroom. It will be nice to get our room organized again.

We had a good weekend, watching movies, doing yard work, and eating a great Sunday breakfast at Sweet Tomatoes.

Portland is in for another stretch of hot weather. It is supposed to get up to about 90 today and even warmer tomorrow.

Tomorrow evening, we're planning to go see The Proposal with a bunch of our friends at The Academy Theater.

College is starting for many of my Facebook friends. Study hard, kids!

Another week ends

Joy's painting of our bedroom is almost finished. It should be done over the weekend.

John has Fondue Friday tonight, so I'll take him and Cyrus to the meeting and Bjorn will bring John home afterwords.

Driving to Ochoa's yesterday for lunch with Brian, we saw some trees starting to change color. I guess that it's to be expected, since Autumn officially starts early next week--but it doesn't mean that I have to like it! Hah! Oh well, next thing you know it'll be spring again.

September is half over

Time continues to fly by. We've had some nice, warm weather. They are forecasting some showers on Saturday, but other than that, it is all sunny and warm in the ten day forecast.

I've been experimenting with using vbscript to enable the scheduling of the defragmentation of my XP computers. Vista has scheduled defrag built in.

Our Logitech universal remote control at home died; I'm going to have to find a replacement. Otherwise, we need 4 different remotes to control the TV, cable box, etc. in our living room.

Joy has been painting our bedroom. That should be finished soon.

A Fun September Weekend

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Sellwood Park to have a picnic with a bunch of our friends. We ate too much, laughed and visited, and enjoyed the shade trees. Brian and I showed off our phones (my G1, his Palm Pre) to the other guys, playing Youtube videos, etc. The ladies visited about school, work, etc. Les and I figured out how to set up his Nikon camera for continuous shooting and he got some good pictures of some of the middle school football games being played in front of us.

Yesterday morning, I put up some curtain rods in the living room while Joy did more painting of our bedroom. In the afternoon, we went to a wedding reception for some friends.

Last evening, we went to ComedySportz for a improvisational comedy show. John's Spanish I class is using some improv in the learning process and his teacher wanted the students -- and parents -- to be able to see it in use. We were all laughing, enjoying the show. We want to go back soon!

9/11

Eight years have passed since the tragic happenings on 9/11/2001. Our world has changed. America has much less freedom--to give us a sense of security. I was hoping that President Obama would restore some of the freedoms that were taken away by President Bush, but so far he is moving very slowly that direction, unfortunately.

The trillions of dollars that were spent in Iraq would have come in handy, here at home, with the recession that we're struggling with. I was definitely not a fan of Saddam Hussein, but felt then--and still feel now--that the economic boycott, etc., were working and should have been given more time. Also the "connection" between Iraq and the 9/11 terrorists has never been proven to my satisfaction, so that premise to invade still seems ludicrous. Oh well, I'll get off of my soap box.

Tomorrow, we're planning to go to the Oregon Zoo to see the new Predators of the Serengeti exhibit. On Sunday, we have a wedding reception to attend and then on Sunday evening, we're going to ComedySportz with John's Spanish I class.