topher

There’s so much to blog about these days, and I just don’t have time for everything.  Here’s a quick roundup (which won’t preclude me from blogging in more depth in the future):

Entertainment

In the last couple weeks we watched the original Italian Job (1969, interesting, very different) and Meet the Fockers (about the same quality as the first one).

I started reading a long series perilously close to the time when I need to start through the Harry Potter series again so I’m up to speed when the new book comes out in July (just days from my birthday).  We’ll see if I can finish it off.

Technology

I finally decided to give up Redhat 9 on my desktop at work.  It’s been working for 2 years now, I think I’ve only shut it off 3 times.  But more and more software packages are starting to require stuff that is hard to get for rh9 these days.

So the other day I started a Gentoo install.  All things considered, a Stage 3 install isn’t any worse than a Fedora install.  I can do a Fedora install in under and hour because I’ve had so much practice.  I think I could get close to that with gentoo with only a few more tries.

GRUB is hateful.  I just have to say that.  It’s never given me anything but headaches, and this install was no different.  Everything about this install went flawlessly except for GRUB being dumb.  But I BEAT it.

So while it’s been down, I’ve been using an older iBook I bought from Ed a while back.  I have a windows 2000 box on my desk here too, but I’ve always wanted to really try out OS X.

On the whole, it’s ok.  I find it to be rather counter-intuitive, and software installation is a bit of a kludge, but the unix underpinnings are indeed nice for those who like a real operating system.

I’m guessing that once a user gets used to OS X’s idiosyncrosies, it’s hard to use anything else.  I’m that way with Linux.  I really miss mouse focus and highlight-copy.  I’m guessing I could get add-ons to make that work in OS X, but if I spent all my time and energy making OS X work like Linux, why not use Linux?  It’s certainly cheaper.

In Summary

I don’t have a lot else to say.  At some point I’ll do a longer post about Gentoo, and maybe about OS X (thought I think I’ve said all I have to say about that), and I’ll review the books I’m reading, and maybe the movies.  We’ll see.

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