February 7, 2004

Well, I have really fallen behind on the updates, haven’t I? My laptop died while I was working on a couple of days of updates last week and I had to completely reinstall Windows XP onto it and that took two days and then I had to reinstall all of my software onto it that I had had and get my files back and everything and in the process, I fell way behind. So I am attempting today to do a little bit of catching up. I have some time to myself this morning while Min is sleeping. She worked last night and we had the Friday night game here. We had seven people make it so that was pretty cool. That game is a LOT of fun once you start getting enough people playing it.

As always, I am on the hunt for ridiculous website. So, here is the website Better Than Life. I am not sure what this is but isn’t it weird. Take a look at the cats. Hopefully soon I will start posting pictures of Mr. Humphries because I know that everyone wants to see him.

Andy took Tony home this morning and then hit the road for the great white North. We are not sure how long he is going to be up there visiting Miranda but he should be back sometime during the week. He was supposed to go into work this week in Buffalo to meet with BOC so they could talk about what he is doing now that he is back in the area and when he might be going back but they won’t call him. He called BOC as soon as he got in and has been calling them all week but they are just ignoring his calls. When he left Puerto Rico, they told him that he would probably be coming back down in two weeks but that they would give him one week’s notice before he had to be back down. But they are already up to that point and no one will even talk to him. Just a line they fed him hoping that he wouldn’t go looking for another job. What a bunch of crooks.

I am downloading Fedora Linux today to give it a try. Fedora is the successor to the infamous Red Hat dynasty. Red Hat gave up on making their own free Linux product but turned over what they were doing to the Fedora project. So I am giving Fedora a try to see how it is. I have always been a really big SuSE fan and it will be pretty hard to persuade me to use anything else regularly but I want to have some experience on it and see how it is. It is always nice to try something different anyway. Now that I am able to load multiple operating systems onto my main computer and run them in emulation windows, I can easily try out all kinds of neat stuff. So I figured that it was the perfect time to give Fedora a try. I need to know how reactive Linux is going to be running on Virtual PC 2004 because I am thinking about not buying that second computer that I was sure I was going to get (I still really want a Frag Gear Shuttle XPC) but instead just beefing up my main computer and running Linux in a Virtual PC windows instead. It won’t be as fast but I want have to run ANOTHER computer in my office just to have the functionality of two. Plus then I can have a screaming fast main machine instead of two pretty fast ones, use less electric, make less noise, take up less room and have lots of power to run tons of experimental stuff on my desktop. I am excited about the idea, I hope that it really works.

I made myself some Miso soup for lunch. I had to mention that because that isn’t something that you do everyday.

Fedora installed on Virtual PC 2004 really easy. In fact, even more easily than installing on a regular computer. The VPC allows you to mount CD images (ISOs) that are located on the hard drive instead of having to burn them to CD first. That is one of the handiest features that I could possibly imagine. What a time saver. And for me who has to get up and walk around his desk everytime he needs to change a CD it is especially nice to be able to switch CDs that way. I am really impressed with this software. I think a lot of people would benefit from having VPC installed (although they, and I, recommend at least 1GB of memory!) Fedora ran quite nicely and look absolutely gorgeous. It couldn’t be easier to use. It works fast enough to really use too. And it connected to the network right out of the box. I didn’t have to do anything to get online; it was able to update itself immediately. I am very, very impressed.

Dad came over for dinner tonight at 5:30. Min made Quorn Pot Pie with a mushroom soup base. It was really good. And we tried out Perry’s new French Silk Pie ice cream for dessert. That was really good too. Dad hung out until 8:30 but had some work to get done so he had to take off.

Min and I decided that since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner (one week from today) that we owed it to ourselves to get As Time Goes By Series 6. So we drove up to Rochester and tried both Media Play and Borders and neither of them had it. It has been out for almost a week and no one is stocking it yet. I am not sure what logic they are using because they both price it $8 higher than Amazon and since Amazon can get it to you on the day of release, what is the benefit of going to a brick and mortar store? As far as I can tell, the only advantage to the old business model is that you can hop in the car and drive to the store and get what you want right now. But the reality is, you just can’t for most things. You would not believe how many times Min and I run to the store to get something that we are willing to pay tons more for just so that we have it right away and end up looking at three or four stores and then giving up and ordering from Amazon anyway. And consistently, Amazon gives us better service than the regular stores too. So online I get products faster, cheaper, more conveniently and with better customer service. Hmmm. No wonder online shopping is making such an impact. So, Min and I gave up and headed home. Once again made fools of for thinking that Borders would be the right choice for anything other than browsing.

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